Asylum
by Princess Dystopia
Summary: To Keiko, games are worthless. That is, until she finds herself trapped in one, alongside the most stubborn man in The World, Balmung of the Azure Sky. Now she must find a way to escape, deal with the gamer-girl obsession, and try not to fall in love.
1. First Day

First days of any event are always tiring, but the look on my kid sister's face made tired sound like an understatement and her first day hadn't even started yet.

Tsukiko kept her gaze on the carpet as she exited the bathroom. In the past week, she hadn't said much to me and I didn't blame her. She was in an entirely new environment with a new family that she hadn't seen since she was two. For a ten-year-old, it must've been terrifying.

"I'm sorry I took so long, Keiko," she mumbled. The way her russet hair covered her face annoyed me. I knew she let it fall that way to hide from me. It made me uncomfortable.

"Don't worry about it, Tsuki," I assured her, using our mother's nickname for her. I saw her gaze lift slightly and I expected her to look me in the eyes for the first time since she got here. However, she looked back down to the floor and walked past me to finish getting ready for school.

I thought about shaking my head in disapproval as I walked into the bathroom, but I didn't want her to see. As I ran the hairbrush through my shoulder-length hair, my mind was focused on my sister. She was brave, but at the same time, she wasn't. Looking at the bedroom reflected in the mirror, I watched her stare at her computer.

Before she left our mother and our step-father, we (my father and I) were warned that she would spend the majority of her time on some online game called The World. Our mother said she would make up excuses to get out of social events just to spend hours sitting on her computer chair with a pair of ugly goggles on her face and a controller in her hands.

I personally believed it was an escape from her old home. She hated the fact that another baby was coming along and my mother was planning to move far away, which was why she chose to live with my father and I.

When I was nine and Tsukiko was two, our parents filed for a divorce. They agreed on joint custody, but I never visited my mother and her new husband and Tsukiko never visited us. Now, eight years later, my sister became a stranger to me, as I was to her, and it was painfully obvious that she wasn't interested in becoming anything more than that. All she was interested in was The World. I could never get into something like that.

Once my contacts were in (I wish I had the colored ones; I hated my hazel eyes), I grabbed my backpack and car keys from the bed and looked at Tsukiko. She sported a small backpack with a keychain of an ugly pig on it. I had asked her about it, and she told me it was a Grunty, whatever the hell that is.

"Are you ready?" I asked. Her huge brown eyes met mine and she nodded. I knew she wasn't.

:-:-:-:

The ride to school was definitely awkward. I wanted to make conversation, but I had no idea what to talk about. Finally, I picked the first topic that popped into my head.

"So, do you like guys yet?" I instantly regretted those words as soon as they came from my mouth. Tsukiko shrugged, staring out the window.

"There are some pretty hot avatars in The World," she replied. Not the answer I wanted, little sister.

"Oh."

I was so relieved when I pulled up to the curb at her school. Before she shut the door, she looked back at me and forced a smile onto her face. "Thank you. You'll be here at 2:30, right?"

"Of course. I have my cell, so you can text me if you want."

The panicked look on her face screamed, "Please don't leave me! I don't know anyone! I'm going to get lost! Take me with you!"

I put my car into park and got out, moving toward her as quickly as I could. It was inelegant at first, but I knew hugging my sister relieved us both. "You'll be okay. Good luck."

"Thanks, Keiko. Good luck to you, too. You won't need it, though."

Fortunately, she was right.

:-:-:-:

For the past two years, the first day of school terrified me to the point of almost-panic attacks. Now that I was a junior at Asahi Senior High, that fear was gone. I felt more confident knowing I was now an upperclassman.

All my classes, with the exception of one, flew by in a blur of seeing old friends, recognizing old teachers, and pointing freshman in the right directions. It irritated me slightly, but I brushed it off. It wasn't their fault they got lost. The school was pretty large.

The only class that seemed to drag on forever was P.E., my last class of the day. I knew why it took forever; I'd always hated any sort of forced exercise. I wasn't much of a runner because my immune system wasn't the best thanks to my father's smoking habits.

I only recognized a few girls in the locker room. While Captain Koura went through the rules and regulations that I swear I had memorized by now, I watched the girls. It was easy to tell the "dark" from the "light."

The "dark" girls consisted of a red-head, green eyed Igarashi, a long blonde-haired Natori, and a pitch black-haired Kobayakawa. I didn't know their first names and in all honesty, I didn't care enough to learn them. I knew them from classes in previous years and I knew how hateful they were, and I knew that as a senior, Natori was the leader of the pack.

The "light" side consisted of two lowerclassmen and one upperclassman. The upperclassman, Asaoka, had long blonde hair and the biggest blue eyes anyone could ever see. Hayami Akira, one of the underclassmen, had short brown hair like mine, but she fluffed it toward the back in a cute way that reminded me of bird feathers. The other underclassman, Hamaoka Risa, had black eyes that matched her short black hair. Just one look at her could tell you how fiesty she was.

If I remember right, all of them were very much into tennis.

A vibration in my pocket jolted my body in surprise. Hiding my cell phone from Koura, I read the text message Tsukiko had sent me.

_I hate this. Everyone just looks past me and doesn't say hi._

Part of me felt sorry for her, but come on, what did she expect? A party to celebrate the new girl? Not everyone is willing to strike up a conversation out of nowhere with her.

_I'm sorry. Thirty more minutes and you're out of there._

I looked at the clock on my phone. 1:55. Five more minutes and I could leave to pick her up. I started to think of things to talk about on the ride home. Maybe I should talk about things she's interested in? Only one thing popped into my mind: The World. It was going to be a long drive home.

:-:-:-:

"Do you like your classes?" I asked as soon as Tsukiko got into the car. I was avoiding that awkward silence as much as possible.

She sighed heavily and relaxed into the seat. "No," she flat-out said. "I hate all my classes and I hate that school." Such a little pessimist.

"I'm sorry," I lied, driving away from the school. "So, um…What's that game you play?"

Her head whipped toward me and I saw a hint of excitement in her eyes. Man, she was must really love that game. "The World," she said happily.

I strummed my fingers on the wheel uncomfortably. "What's it all about?"

"It's role-playing, basically. You pick a character class and your own name and then you start out in a Root Town. You can travel to fields and fight monsters to gain experience points to level up and find treasure. You can also make friends to add to your party so fighting monsters is easier. It's so fun, Keiko!"

Even though I nodded as she talked, I blocked out her babbling after "role-playing." It was definitely not something I was even remotely interested in.

"We'll make you a character," Tsukiko decided when I pulled into the driveway.

"Excuse me?" I asked quickly. She didn't hear me, though. The door was already shut and she was already on her way up to our room. I almost forgot to turn the car off before running after her.

:-:-:-:

I could kick myself multiple times for starting the conversation about The World on the way home. By the time I entered our room, she was already starting up the computer. I nearly threw my backpack onto my bed.

"Tsukiko, it's okay. You don't have to," I told her quickly before anymore damage could be done. "I don't want to take away from your playing time."

She shook her head stubbornly. "It's fine. I can share." I wanted to curl up in a ball and die.

Once the computer was turned on, she clicked on an icon on her desktop in the shape of a W. After a few seconds, an entirely new desktop appeared with a background image that matched her keychain. What was the big deal about that stupid pig anyway? It wasn't even cute.

"This is my The World desktop," she explained. She grabbed the controller from the side of the desk and clicked the down arrow, explaining the six icons on the left side. The top icon, which was a square, was the first one she explained. "This one is to go to the menu to access the actual game and the BBS. This one," she moved down to the check mark under the square, "is your e-mail. People from the game can send you e-mails about anything pretty much."

"Is it the same as a regular e-mail?" I asked, trying my hardest to sound interested. She shook her head.

"No. Only people that play The World can send you e-mails here." She moved down again to an N icon. "This is the News. It's pretty much updates about stuff from all over the world. The next two icons are just options to change your background image and music."

She moved down to the very last one and logged out of her account, then moved away from the chair. I had no choice but to sit after she patted the seat with her hand. I sighed and stared at the screen, reading the option to enter a character name and password, or create a new account. Tsukiko chose the last option for me.

An entirely new screen popped up. "Please enter a character gender and name," I read aloud. "Female, of course. And a name…" I leaned back in the chair, thinking hard. It didn't matter anyway. I was never going to play this game again.

"How about Rin?" Tsukiko offered. "It's short and simple, like you."

I gave her a small smile. "Are you saying I'm short?" I asked, feigning a hurt tone.

"No, of course not! I meant, you don't like to drag things out, like conversations."

So she picked up on that. Smart girl. I allowed the controller to fall onto my lap and typed in the name. "Rin it is, then." Once I hit enter, a smaller screen took the place of the old. "Character class?"

"My favorite part," Tsukiko whispered. "There are six character classes in The World. Twin Blades fight with two daggers and they move pretty fast. Heavy Blades have huge swords and can wear any type of armor in the game. Wavemasters use magic to fight and they have strong healing spells. Blademasters have thin swords but they have pretty heavy damage. Two of the most famous players in the game are Blademasters. I'm a Long Arm, so I fight with a long spear. And the last is a Heavy Axeman. They carry huge axes and are the slowest class in the game. It's pretty rare to see females with that class."

I scrolled through the classes for about half a minute, then picked whichever class my arrow landed on. Wavemaster. Of course I get the weakest one of the bunch.

"Now you get to create what she looks like," Tsukiko said from behind me.

I decided to stay simple with her looks. I stayed away from any green eye color and the ones that didn't look natural. I settled on blue eyes and long black hair. As for her clothes, I didn't care much about them at all. She became barefoot with a long, dark blue vest and mid-thigh shorts the same color with black swirls up the sides.

"Way to be depressing, Keiko," Tsukiko teased me. I looked over my shoulder and stuck my tongue out at her.

_Like it matters anyway. The second you leave this room, I'm deleting this character._ I thought.

"Now what?" I asked. She grabbed the mouse from my right hand and clicked the "save" option.

"Character 'Rin' has been created. Please enjoy The World!" the screen showed. Tsukiko grabbed the ugly goggles and placed them on my face.

"You'll be able to see everything from Rin's eyes through these. You have the option to turn off the computer screen so its just through the FMD, but we should leave it on for now so I can see and help you."

"FMD?" I asked, looking at my The World desktop through the goggles.

"Face-Mount Display."

"Oh."

I felt the controller in my hands and I hit the icon to go to The World. Everything went black for a moment, and the words "Aqua Capital Mac Anu" appeared in the middle. At the top right corner, the Greek symbol for Delta appeared. As if reading my mind, Tsukiko told me it meant I was in the Delta server's Root Town.

"This is where every player starts out," Tsukiko explained when I arrived. I, or rather, Rin was looking at a vast town with stone buildings and a large bridge in the middle. "Mac Anu is the beginner's level town. All the others are down for maintenance right now, so it might be a bit crowded."

We took some time to explore the place. Although I hated the game, I had to admit that the scenery was very appealing. It was definitely a place I wouldn't mind visiting, if it were real.

She enlightened me on the various shops, how to trade with people or give them gifts, and how to rotate the camera angle to my liking. It was so hard to block out the voices of all the other players to hear her.

"Now talk," she ordered. "Say hi to that wall."

I turned toward the nearest wall and said, "hello" with my mouth. In the chat log at the bottom of the screen, the word was typed for me while Rin said it in my voice at the same time I did. Whoa, talk about technology of the future.

"There are three types of chat. Public chat, party chat, and private chat. With public, _everyone_ hears you and is able to get to your words with the chat log. When you're in party chat, only the other two players in your party can hear you speak, and in private, only one more player can, whether or not they're in your party at the time. Now, go to that golden circle."

I obeyed her and returned to where I first started out. "What is that?" I asked.

"It's a Chaos Gate. It's how to travel to different towns and areas. All right, for part A, choose 'Bursting.'" I did as I was told. "For part B, choose 'Passed Over.'" Again, I did. "And for part C, 'Aqua Field.'"

Once they were all put together, I looked at the new screen. There were two options, "warp" and "cancel" next to the area's status. It was a level 1 area with the element of wood. There were glowing orbs of different colors next to that, but those just confused me. After studying it all for a moment, I chose to warp to the area.

The screen went dark again, like it had before I arrived at Mac Anu. In the middle in a blue box, the words "Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field" were listed, next to the Delta symbol. I was suddenly blinded by a green field.

Using the buttons Tsukiko told me to use, I rotated the camera around, looking at my surroundings. Everything was so green and a soft tune that reminded me of summer played in the background. I stopped circling around when my sister gasped beside me.

I knew why. A man was standing not too far away. Well, I think he was a man. His back was turned to me, but I could make out almost every single white feather on his wings. Next to me, my sister was practically hyperventilating.

"Tsuki, wha-"

"ITS BALMUNG OF THE AZURE SKY!"


	2. Attack

"Who?" I mumbled, trying to see my sister through the FMD. However, all I saw was the man turn around to face me. Seeing as it was the first time another player acknowledged me, I became very nervous.

"Yes?" he replied. I studied his clothing for a moment. He had silver and blue armor that covered almost his entire body, hair the color of his wings that were fluffed back in a way that almost reminded me of Akira's, and grey eyes that stared at me in a very bored way.

"It's Balmung of the Azure Sky; one of the most famous players on this game," Tsukiko hurried to explain. "I wonder why he's in such a low level area."

I didn't move or say anything for a long time. I wasn't sure what to do. Balmung just stared at me until his head slowly tilted to the side. Man, these characters were detailed with their actions. I watched his hair fall to the side, too.

"Hello?" he asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice.

"Um, hi," I replied.

He approached me slowly, like someone trying to approach a wild animal. I had to tilt my camera angle up to look at his face, or else I would've been staring at his chest.

"Are you a new player?"

The way he spoke to me was in a way that I'd never heard before. It was intimidating, and yet, the sound of his voice was very calming. He spoke with so much confidence that I wasn't quite sure how to respond.

"Yes," I finally told him with a hint of embarrassment. "My sister forced me to make a character today. She's the one who screamed your name in my ear."

"Keiko!" Tsukiko hissed. Without looking at her, I shrugged.

"I see," Balmung whispered. He glanced around the area quickly, and then sighed heavily. "I don't see anything abnormal, so I suppose…" He seemed to be thinking out loud to himself, until he looked at me. "Would you like me to teach you how to battle monsters, miss?"

Miss? I was surprised at the gentlemanly attitude he had. With this day and age, someone like that was rare. I tried to picture what he looked like in real life. I imagined a muscled man with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, sitting horseback in front of his computer desk, wearing armor like his character's.

_Don't be stupid. Men don't sit horseback while playing video games._ I thought.

"Uh, s-sure. You can just call me Ke- I mean Rin."

Balmung nodded and turned toward another Chaos Gate that swirled about ten feet away. "As you already know, I am Balmung. Has your sister told you about Chaos Gates, Miss Rin?"

I could almost feel Tsukiko breathing on my face. I felt around for her until I felt body tissue, then pushed her away. Through the light background music playing in my ears, I heard her apologize.

"Drop the 'miss,' please. She told me about the one in Mac Anu."

"Follow me," he ordered, advancing toward Chaos Gate. I hurried after him, paying close attention as he talked. "Chaos Gates in areas are different. They either contain monsters to fight or treasure chests. Also, about chests: blue ones are trapped and require a Fortune Wire to open without being harmed. Brown ones are safe."

He stopped walking once the gate started opening. An ugly little goblin holding a dagger of some sort stood in its place. I waited for it to come closer, but it never did.

"Monsters in this particular area don't fight back," Balmung told me. "Considering your character class, you don't do much physical attacking. Your job is to mainly heal your party members and cast magic spells. However, I want you to fight this without magic. Approach it and use the 'X' button to strike it with your staff."

As soon as I walked closer to the goblin, a wooden staff appeared in my left hand. I could feel my palms starting to sweat as I repeatedly hit the attack button on the controller until it fell to the ground, turned a depressing grey color, and faded away. Once it was gone, I could hear my heart beating in my ears.

"Congratulations. You've killed your first monst- Rin, what's wrong?" Balmung asked, the look on his face changing from a smile to a worried expression in seconds. It was then that I noticed I was hyperventilating.

"I've never killed anything in my life!" I told him in a voice louder than needed. "Well, there was that one time I hit a rabbit when Dad and I went camping, but I was only sixteen! I didn't know better! I sucked at driving then!"

While I complained about killing the goblin, Balmung just stood there and watched me in silence. I continued until Tsukiko smacked my arm. I stopped rambling.

"Are you finished?" Balmung asked.

"Yeah. Sorry."

For some reason, I was getting the sense that he was trying his hardest not to laugh at me. He didn't show it, though. He only smiled and pointed to a small stone structure that led down into the ground. "That's the dungeon. I'll fight the monsters for you so it won't trigger any more suppressed traumatic memories."

I couldn't help but smile at the playful tone in his voice. "You're so generous," I joked.

I walked past him toward the dungeon and he walked by my side. "Also, these monsters aren't real. Nothing in this game is, so they don't feel pain. Even if you run them over with a vehicle," he whispered.

I was about to say some smart-ass remark, but Tsukiko stopped me. She patted my shoulder and told me she was going to make us something to eat. I didn't stop her; I was actually pretty hungry, and exploring the dungeon would have been a lot easier with only one person giving me advice.

:-:-:-:

"I've already explained these," Balmung said, standing in front of two different colored treasure chests. One was blue and the other was brown.

"Blue is trapped, right? You need a…a…"

"Fortune Wire. They disarm the trap and make it safe to open it."

His character froze for a moment, then the blue color faded into brown. He moved his hand in an inviting way and I moved closer to it. The targeting system locked onto the box and I hit the 'X' button.

"You now have Green Gale!" popped onto my screen.

"Green Gale?" I repeated, looking at the winged man for an explanation.

"It's a scroll. Usually non-Wavemaster players use them to cast magical spells."

I mentally sighed, thinking how disappointed I was. I was hoping it was something a lot less…nerdy than a magic scroll. I nodded and looked toward the pitch-black doorway in front of us.

"Well, we should hurry along."

"BALMUNG, MY MAN!"

The loud, overpowering voice almost made me fall out of my chair. Balmung and I turned around to see two other players.

The larger of the two hardly wore any clothing. Just enough to cover one shoulder, his legs, and his crotch. The two main colors he sported were blue and green, with the exception of his orange hair that was slicked back. His sword hung from his waist, like Balmung's did.

Next to the large man a smaller male player stood, looking very nervous. He held two daggers in both his hands, telling me that he was a Twin Blade. His colors were pretty simple. His clothes were a dark green color and from under his hat, his turquoise hair spiked out.

Compared to the three of them, I felt short. Even the Twin Blade was taller than me by a little bit.

"Orca, it's nice to see you again. It's been a while," Balmung greeted the large man. Orca smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, it has. I keep getting caught up in school - oh, I forgot. I can't complain about school around you, huh?" Orca joked. His voice was very deep and mature. I wondered what kind of schooling he was in. When he laughed, it comforted me.

The two of them began to talk as if the Twin Blade and I weren't there. From their tones, I could tell they had been friends for a very long time. Surprisingly enough to me, Balmung even started talking without that archaic-gentleman attitude.

"Once you get in my grade, _then_ you can complain," Balmung told him.

"That's right. You're Mr. Senior-Who-Is-About-To-Graduate. How was your first day, by the way?"

"Same as the last three yea-"

I cut them off by clearing my throat. The Twin Blade looked at me in relief. Balmung and Orca stopped talking and smiled at us.

"Oh, right. I forgot," Orca said. He moved over to the Twin Blade. "This is Kite, a friend of mine. He's new so I'm showing him around."

Kite smiled at Balmung and I. "It's nice to meet you two." Forget what I said about Orca's voice being comforting. Kite's blew his out of the water.

I couldn't help but blush when Balmung introduced me. "This is Rin. She is also a new player. Orca, you and I are on the same mission." He no longer spoke in a casual way.

"Awesome, man. We should team up with thi-"

Balmung and Orca suddenly went quiet. I remembered what Tsukiko had told me about Private Chat. I figured that's what they were doing. After a few moments, Orca shook his head.

"I don't think so. They would've shut the area down if it was true."

"I do not want any more incidents," Balmung told him in a stern voice.

"We'll be fine."

Orca and Kite started walking in front of us, so I looked at Balmung. He was silent, and for some reason, that worried me. "Balmung, is everything okay?" I questioned.

He hesitated before smiling at me. "Yes, everything is fine."

_You're a terrible liar, Balmung. Just tell me what you two were talking about._

The silence that fell over us all made me uncomfortable. Through the ominous background music and the clicking sounds of our footfalls, I could hear Tsukiko messing around in the kitchen downstairs. It sounded like she was doing the dishes or something. Figures. In the short time she'd been with us, I learned she was a neat-freak.

"What was that?" Kite suddenly yelled, bringing my full attention back to the game.

"You saw that too?" Orca asked him.

"Saw what?" Balmung and I asked in unison. Kite and Orca seemed to have been the only ones who saw…whatever it was, and it sure freaked them out.

"Was it chasing her?"

"Yeah, but…something like that on this level?" Orca wondered out loud. He looked at Balmung with the most serious expression I've seen him wear yet. "The BBS was right about this place. There's something here. We should go back and take them to a different level."

Balmung shook his head. "No, we'll continue."

Like before, the two players fell into their own conversation. This time, however, they weren't joking around with each other. While they talked, Kite and I fell back and stood near each other.

"Balmung, you didn't see that thing. If something happens, we could end up like-"

"Nothing is going to happen. We are the Descendents of Fianna. Nothing can match us. Whatever that abnormality was, we will defeat it. It is our duty to maintain the order of this game."

From the intense stare Orca gave Balmung, it was obvious who won. "Fine. But if anything does happen, it's on _your_ head, man."

We continued on into the dungeon in silence. Thankfully, it was only two floors of fighting monsters. Balmung, Kite, and Orca took care of that while I stood back and watched. I kept having the feeling that something bad was going to happen, so all I wanted to do was get this dungeon out of the way and delete my character.

"This is the Gott Statue: the objective of dungeons," Balmung explained as we arrived in a room with a large floating statue. "With each element, there is a god that symbolizes it. The statue changes depending on the area's element. Since this area is a wood element, the statue is Krake. The treasure chest in this room normally contains a rare item, and two other items that can be sold for large amounts of GP."

Orca opened the chest and turned toward me. "This is a staff, so you can have it."

"Orca has given you Ebony Wand!" appeared in front of my face.

_I hope you know you just wasted a weapon. It'll probably disappear the second I quit this stupid game._

"Um, thanks," I mumbled.

"Orca, do you have a Sprite Ocarina? It seems I forgot to buy one while I was in town," Balmung asked. Orca shook his head.

"Nope. Looks like we're walkin' back."

The second we left the room, that "something-bad-is-going-to-happen" feeling intensified greatly. The FMD started making a strange static noise and my vision went completely white. It was too bright to keep my eyes open, so I shut them tight and called out for the other players. I couldn't even hear myself talk over the static.

Suddenly, the noise stopped. I opened my eyes to a whole new terrain. I was standing on a large portion of land with bright blue fissures ripping through it. In the dark sky, piece of trees and buildings that looked like medieval churches floated around.

"Rin!" I heard Balmung call. I turned around to see the three of them standing together. I didn't waste any time running to them.

We waited for a half a minute until a pink data wave appeared from the middle of the area. A girl rose from it. She didn't look a day over thirteen. Her pallid hair tumbled down her back in soft waves and her cerulean eyes watched us in panic. She wore a long white dress with the sign for infinity under her chin. I couldn't see her arms or legs.

Beside me, I heard Orca let out a heavy breath. "The rumors were true," he whispered before turning to Balmung. "Stay with them."

Orca advanced toward the girl slowly. We all watched as a book appeared between them.

"Take this," the girl told him. "Please, take this." Her voice sounded broken, but frantic.

"Huh?"

The girl urged the book on him. "Please. There is no time. Take this."

Orca lifted a hand to support the book. He looked down on it, studying the strange symbol that was etched into it. "What is it?"

"A great force. The power it holds can bring forth either salvation or destruction at the whim of the user."

Orca took a step back. "You're-"

"It's coming!" Without another word, the girl floated back and disappeared in the air.

I wanted to rip off the FMD, shut the computer off, and throw it out the window. But I couldn't feel my hands or my feet. In fact, I couldn't even feel the chair I was sitting on or the controller in my hands.

A screeching noise behind us almost made my heart stop beating. Before turning around, I watched the book vanish from Orca's hand.

"It's the thing!" Kite yelled, pointing at the huge monster that emerged from the data stream. This _thing_ was no goblin.

The monster's head was small, but a half-circle that almost connected sprouted from both sides, resembling horns. It had long arms that were separated into three parts, held together by an invisible force. In its right hand, its long fingers were curled around a red wand that was almost as large as its body. It didn't even have feet - only long, stiff legs that ended in what reminded me of an amputee stump.

Orca ran past us with his sword aimed for the monster. Balmung ordered Kite and I to stay where we were and joined his friend. I watched them attack it, but the word "miss" kept appearing in red letters.

"What is this?" Balmung yelled right before the monster raised its wand and swung it at him. It collided with Balmung's body, sending him flying back.

I felt as if I couldn't breathe as I watched him tumble on the ground, his wings flapping in a grotesque way, until his body skidded to a stop. Dust from the ground covered him and lifted around him. It wasn't normal.

"Keiko!" I heard Tsukiko scream. She didn't sound close to me, though. She sounded miles away. "Turn off the game!"

"Orca!" Kite yelled. I looked away from Balmung just in time to watch Orca lift into the air in front of the monster's wand.

In a crucified position, Orca floated a few feet away from the monster. It lifted one of its long arms and a bright-colored circle appeared on its wrist. The noise that I was beginning to hate echoed around us and a sharp data stream flew from the bracelet and went through Orca's body. He yelled in pain and I knew he had actually felt it.

When the attack was over, his body dropped to the ground. Kite ran over to him, but I couldn't move still. "It wasn't supposed to be this way. I'm sorry. Get out of here!" Orca yelled to us all before his body lifted again and disappeared.

My heart sank into my stomach when the monster looked at me. I felt my body start to shake. But it wasn't the body of Keiko. It was Rin's body. It lifted its arm again, pointing at me.

_Move. Move, damn it. Move, move, move, MOVE!_

I watched the light gather in its palm and I heard the death noise. My legs were cemented to the ground and my ears rang loudly.

_I'm going to die._

"Rin!" I heard Balmung's voice call.

Everything moved so fast after that. My vision went completely black as I felt his body collide with mine and the sharp pain filling my entire body. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, but Balmung's weight on top of me wouldn't allow me to do so.

I heard a crash of a computer monitor, and my sister's terrified scream. The words "SYSTEM ERROR" flashed in front of me three times.

I fell unconscious.


	3. Statue

_Thump-thump…thump-thump…thump-thump…_

Tsukiko's alarm clock was so annoying. I wish I didn't have to share a room with her. Everything would've been easier if she just stayed with our mother.

_Thump-thump…thump-thump…thump-thump…_

"Tsuki, wake up. We need to go to school," I tried to say, but all that came out was a hoarse whisper.

_Thump-thump…thump-thump…thump-thump…_

Wait. That wasn't an alarm clock. It was too soft.

"Rin?" a somewhat familiar voice asked. "Rin, come on. Wake up."

_Rin? Who the hell is that? Oh, yeah…That's my character…Wait…_

Opening my eyes was a struggle. I couldn't lift my arms to rub them open. What was wrong with my body? Nothing was working right.

"Character data…reboot," I swore I heard a mechanical voice say.

Finally, after what seemed like years, I was able to open my eyes, only for them to be forced shut again by a blinding light. I was able to lift my arms to shield my vision.

It was then that I noticed the sound of running water and the cold surface under my body. Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I stared into the eyes of the Twin Blade from before. What was his name again?

Slowly, I lifted my upper body off the ground, using my right hand to prop myself up. Even though I could hear the low buzz of people talking, we were alone.

"Good morning," the Twin Blade said as he smiled at me. His voice sounded anxious underneath the happy tone he forced into it.

"Where are we?" I questioned. I leaned against a nearby building, trying to ignore my aching muscles.

"The back alley in Mac Anu," he answered simply. I stared at him for a long while, trying to put everything together in my memory.

That huge monster…the girl dressed in white…Orca had been attacked…I was attacked…Balmung yelled my name and tackled me…Balmung.

"Where's Balmung? Is he okay?" I felt my body shaking. If Balmung had been hurt, or worse, because of me, I could never forgive myself.

"I don't know…"

Suddenly, anger filled me. I lunged at him and grabbed the front of his shirt. "You don't know? _You don't know?_ You knew where I was, but you don't know where _Balmung_ is?" I hissed. Then, I realized something.

I was grabbing his shirt. I looked down at my hands and rubbed the fabric in between my fingers. It felt real, as if I were holding a regular shirt in my hands. I felt the ground under my feet, the clothing on my body, and my hair moving around on my back.

Not my hair - Rin's hair. I was Rin. I was in her body, but now, there was no FMD on my face, or controller in my hands, or the chair I sat in. I was living as Rin inside The World.

"No," I whispered, letting go of him. "No, no, no, no, no."

I backed away when he moved closer. "Rin, are you okay?"

I turned my back to him, hugging myself tightly. I pinched my arm hard and winced at the pain. "I'm dreaming," I told myself. "I have to be dreaming. This kind of stuff doesn't happen. Especially not to normal people like me."

"Rin, what's wrong?" the Twin Blade asked. "You…You're crying."

I stopped pacing and lifted a shaking hand to my cheek. I felt the warm liquid and saw it when I pulled my hand away. "I'm crying," I repeated. I lifted my gaze to meet his and allowed him to come closer. I felt him grab my upper arms. "I'm crying."

"You're okay, Rin," he said as I placed my head in the crook of his neck. His skin was so cold, not like a normal person's. "You're okay."

_Stop crying, Keiko. It's not going to help anything. You need to find Balmung and find out way out of this game._

But I still allowed myself to cry for a while. He didn't seem to mind, although I knew it must've been very awkward for him.

"What…What happened? I can't remember much," I whispered, backing away from him. "And I'm sorry, but I forgot your name."

"It's Kite, and it's okay. I understand. Things are…weird for you right now."

_Weird isn't even the right word for it._

"That…monster attacked my friend, Orca, and then attacked you. Balmung tried to get you out of the way, but that data stream went right through the both of you. You two disappeared and it turned toward me. Right before it attacked, this wand-looking thing crashed into that giant rock we were on and saved me. It forced my computer to shut down. I tried calling Orca, but nobody answered. He didn't show up to school," Kite explained. He then got very quiet. "Two days passed before I talked to his mother. He's in a coma."

"In a coma?" I repeated in disbelief. Kite nodded.

"It was on the news. Along with Orca's case, two others fell into a coma within seconds of him. They're both high school students - a 17-year-old girl and an 18-year-old guy."

I was scared to ask, but I had to. "Did…did they give names?" Kite nodded. "Was the girl Ayano Keiko?"

"Yeah."

I wanted to puke. I covered my mouth and doubled over. More tears started coming. I was comatose.

"Are you Ayano Keiko?" Kite asked softly. I only nodded at him. I couldn't speak. "That means the other was Balmung."

Once I composed myself, I looked at him and wiped my eyes fiercely. "We need to find Balmung to make sure he's okay. I'm sure he's freaking out, too."

Kite nodded in agreement. "We should. Can you walk?"

"I think so."

As we exited the alley, he stayed very close to me. I appreciated it. I didn't want to look unusual if I suddenly collapsed in front of other players. I wanted this whole situation to remain as secret as possible.

We stood in front of the Chaos Gate for a long time, trying to figure out where to look first. There were so many keyword combinations and thousands of dungeons to explore. Would we ever find Balmung?

I grew bored of watching Kite scroll through the keywords on the small screen that appeared before us, so I started watching the characters that warped in and out. I accidentally caught myself staring cynically at a female Heavy Blade. She wasn't wearing much clothing and it made me uncomfortable, especially when she advanced closer to us.

"What? What is it? You have something to say to me?" she demanded to know. She gripped the oversized sword tightly.

_Oh, please hit me. _

"Look here, you little slu-"

"No," Kite cut me off. He had closed the screen down and turned around to watch us. "She doesn't have anything to say."

The girl smirked menacingly. "Oh, I get it. You two are newbies, huh? Well, a word of advice: the Internet is just like the real world. Its rude to stare." She started to walk off, then turned around and asked me, "What's with you anyway?" Before I could give her an answer, she ran off.

"Rude," Kite whispered, turning back around to the Chaos Gate.

The monotonous beeping noise coming from the small screen almost drove me crazy. He had two keywords picked, but was having trouble with the third. I was about to tell him to close his eyes and pick, but the Heavy Blade came back into the picture.

"Hey!" she yelled. I turned around, ready to scream.

"What do you want?" I asked in the rudest tone I could push out.

"Look, I'm sorry for how I acted before. To make it up to you, I uh, know some interesting keywords. Do you want to come with me?" she asked.

I looked at Kite, who shrugged. "We've got no other leads. Sure."

Everyone was quiet for a few seconds. She looked at me curiously. "I can't give you my member address."

"Uh…I think it's a glitch. I'm sure CC Corp. will fix it."

She nodded and walked past Kite, bringing up her own keyword screen. Kite and I watched over her shoulder as she chose the keywords: Hidden, Forbidden, Holy Ground.

"Ready?" she asked.

Without thinking, I gripped onto Kite's arm and nodded just in time for my vision to fail me. Unlike before, there was no black screen with the keywords and server symbol on it. I just heard a lot of static.

Suddenly, an area that was completely different than the one I'd been to before was exposed to me. I let go of Kite's arm and stared up at the cathedral in pure amazement. It seemed to have been placed right in the middle of a dried-up lake.

I took notice to the dark sky. It eerily reminded me of the place where we had been attacked. I remembered the pieces of floating building and compared it to the one in front of us. It looked almost the same.

Without speaking, we started walking. The only noise was our footsteps and my heavy breathing.

"By the way," the Heavy Blade said before we pushed open the huge double doors, "what's your name?" It took me a moment to realize she was speaking to me.

"Oh, um, my name is Rin."

"I'm BlackRose. It's nice to meet you."

"Yeah."

_I don't like you._

I was breathless when we entered the building. Pews extended on both sides of us with pendulums slowly swaying back and forth. At the backside of the cathedral, a chained statue was mounted in front of large windows. Sunlight entered through those windows and hit the back of the statue, giving it the look that it was glowing.

I didn't want to look away from the statue, but I had to when BlackRose screamed. I turned around to see Kite slashing through a goblin with one of his daggers.

"It was just a goblin," Kite told her. She laughed nervously, looking around for any more of them.

"Yeah, you didn't need my help after all. Good job!" The confidence she tried to wear was betrayed by her shaking voice.

I ignored them and moved closer to the statue. She looked exactly like the girl we saw before we were attacked, but she looked so sad. Eight chains came from the walls and ceilings and bounded her neck, wrists, ankles, hips, knees, and elbows.

I jumped slightly when Kite appeared next to me. He looked at the words written on the statue's pedestal. "Skeith…Innis…Magus…Everything after that is faded."

I looked up at the girl's face, blocking out their next conversation about how BlackRose was a new player too. As I looked at her sad expression, I felt an overwhelming sense of peace. I wasn't scared anymore and I knew in this place, with this girl watching over me, I was safe.

The echo of a creaking door opening brought me away from her. The next sound I heard made my heart almost explode.

"Hey!" Balmung called. "What are you doing?"

"Balmung!" I called happily, but my cheerfulness was crushed with the expression on his face. He was infuriated.

Fear rose in my chest as he started running toward us, his sword gripped firmly in his hand. Where was the Balmung I met before? The one that joked around and made smart-ass comments toward me?

"What about you?" BlackRose yelled, lifting her arm to point accusingly at him. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"There's no time! It's too dangerous here!"

I glanced back at the statue again, not believing this place could be dangerous. "What are you talking about?" I whispered to Balmung.

Then I heard the noise. It was too familiar. It was the noise I heard when that monster showed up, when Orca was attacked, and when Balmung and I were attacked.

As soon as Balmung stopped in front of us, a neon green data stream appeared. From the size of it, I thought the monster from before was going to jump out of it. However, a large, headless monster came from it. It carried a bloodied sword in its right hand and a decapitated head in its left.

"Leave here at once!" Balmung ordered, leaping at the monster. With one graceful movement, he sliced through it. It groaned in pain and fell to its knees. I expected it to disappear like a regular monster did after it was defeated, but it didn't. The color only faded away.

The ground shook, making me fall back onto my butt. I watched Balmung stumble, but he didn't fall. The monster rose back onto its feet, its color coming back to its body. In addition to the color, bright purple hexagonal shapes covered it like a shield.

"This one as well," Balmung whispered to himself.

I quickly got back on my feet and watched him ready himself to attack again. "What is that?" I yelled.

"It's a Data Bug!" he answered, glancing back at me for only a short moment. "A virus has rewritten its parameters. It has an infinite number of hit points!"

_We're going to die._

"This is the one," I heard BlackRose mumble. I looked over at her to see her glaring at the monster, her sword ready to attack.

The monster growled at us and raised its own sword high over its head. BlackRose screamed in frustration and dodged at it.

"It'll kill you!" Balmung yelled at her, reaching out to grab her. She moved around him, though.

I watched them both yell at each other as they slashed away at the monster. Like before, the word "miss" kept appearing. I couldn't move.

"The book…Use the book," I heard a female voice say from behind me. I turned around to look at the statue, wondering if she had talked.

I couldn't help but scream at the sudden blinding light that surrounded us. I doubled over and covered my eyes with my hands. When I heard the loud thump of the monster falling to the ground, I peeked out from my fingers. The monster vanished like normal.

"H-How…?" Balmung stuttered, allowing the tip of his blade to fall against the stone floor.

Kite caught my attention. His wrist glowed just as the monster's did. The one that attacked us. His clothing was different, too. Instead of the pale green color they had been, they were now bright orange.

He stared at his wrist as it stopped glowing in confusion and fear.

"Now I understand," Balmung said dangerously, staring at Kite. "Look at you. You're just as bad as the virus that caused this. To think I was saved by the likes of _you_!"

Anger rose in my chest. Kite just saved us, and Balmung was talking to him like that?

"No, that's not me! I-"

"Do not lie to me!"

"What's going on?" BlackRose yelled. Nobody paid any attention to her.

"Recently, many places within The World have been damaged by a strange virus. Even the players are being affected," Balmung informed us. I watched his free hand double up into a tight fist. "I did not expect to find the ones responsible so soon."

"Excuse me?" I butted in. "How can _we _be responsible for this? You know what happened, Balmung! You were there!"

He ignored me and raised his blade to Kite. "Defend yourself."

"I won't fight you! There's no reason to fight!" Kite backed away, shaking his head.

"I've got a damn good reason to fight!" Balmung exploded. "Because of you and your hacking skills, I am unable to log out! I _feel _every physical attack I receive! Draw your sword! Now!"

He started advancing toward Kite, and I suppose BlackRose and I had the same idea in mind. We both stood in front of the Twin Blade, shielding him from any harm. Balmung stopped and glared at us.

"Move."

"What is _wrong_ with you?" BlackRose yelled, swinging her sword at him. He dodged her quickly, using his hair to hide the hint of fear in his eyes. "That's hardly the way to talk to someone who just saved your life!"

Everyone stared each other down for a long time until Balmung sheathed his blade. "I don't trust any of you. I just require the time to think this through." He turned his back to us and started walking toward the doors. Then, without turning back around, he called, "But if I find out that you are in league with the hackers, I will kill you."

I didn't doubt his words for even a second.

BlackRose sighed heavily and let her sword drop. "Man, he's a freak," she whispered, then looked at Kite. "What happened to your clothes?"

"I don't know." Kite sounded very weak and we watched him touch the spot on his wrist where the bracelet had been. Nothing was there now. Slowly, he lifted his eyes to meet mine. "Rin, I think she needs to know. We can't keep it a secret from her forever."

I looked at BlackRose, wondering if she would tell everyone. "All right. You can tell her."

While Kite explained everything that had happened to her, I sat in one of the pews, staring at the statue. Without realizing it, tears fell down my face and dripped onto my arms. They seemed to talk forever.

"Rin?" BlackRose's voice called. I looked at them both standing next to me. I didn't even notice that they had moved.

"Yeah?" I quickly wiped my eyes with the backs of my hands. Their smiles reassured me more than I thought possible.

I stood up and met their eyes one at a time. "You're okay," Kite told me. I don't know why, but those words coming from his voice calmed me down immensely.

"I'm sorry for how I talked to you earlier," BlackRose said to me. "I was just trying to act tough, but I'm just a newbie." She nervously laughed. "I don't know what I'm doing. I don't think I ever will."

"It's okay," I told her. I meant it, too. I'm not one to hold grudges.

"We're going to find a way to get you out of this game, okay?" Kite said. I didn't mind that he was talking to me like I was five. "I have this bracelet for a reason, and I'm going to use it to help you and Orca."

"And Balmung?" I whispered. "Even though I think he went crazy, he needs help, too."

Kite nodded. "Balmung, too. We'll help everyone and fix this game."

I could hear muffled yelling and BlackRose sighed. "Dinner," she told us. "I don't know if I'll be able to get back online tonight."

"Do you want me to stay with you?" Kite asked me. I shook my head.

"I'll be okay. I'm just going to stay here."

They both nodded in unison and headed for the door. I waited for the feeling of loneliness to hit me once the double doors shut, but it never came. I didn't feel alone at all.

I turned and walked to the statue, carefully hopping over the waist-high fence in front of the pedestal. I sat against it, examining the chains binding her. They were almost rusted over, but it didn't look like they were going to break any time soon.

Closing my eyes, I slammed my head against the statue as hard as I possibly could, hoping to knock myself unconscious. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

_I hate this game…_


	4. Wavemaster Party

When my eyes opened, I saw I was still alone inside the cathedral. I must've fallen asleep, because I was sore from the way I was laying against the statue.

Slowly and very carefully, I got to my feet and stretched my arms over my head, lifting myself to my tippy-toes as I did so. Then a thought came to my mind.

_How do I get back to Mac Anu?_

I wandered around the inside of the building for a while, searching for any clues that would help me. I didn't find any, though, so I walked out. The long pathway in front of me was empty as I ventured out.

I found myself looking over the side of the stone wall. Below, there was nothing but thin clouds and darkness. I moved away once I started to feel queasy.

I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against one of the high sections of the wall. How _was_ I going to get back? I didn't have a menu with the option to return back to t-

If I could've screamed, I definitely would have. Without warning, my vision blackened. I knew I was being taken back to Mac Anu. I just didn't know how it happened.

I opened my eyes just as a large Heavy Axeman walked past me. My body jolted in surprise and I quickly stepped away.

"Get out of the way!" he snapped at me, accessing the keyword screen. I thought about yelling back at him, but I didn't want any unnecessary attention, so I hurried down the steps, leaving the rude player behind.

The town seemed a bit more crowded than it did when Kite and I made our way through it. Surprisingly enough, the only place that seemed to have the least amount of people was the large wooden bridge in the middle of town. So I stayed there, glancing over the railing to look at my reflection in the water below.

I expected to see my familiar short brown hair and hazel eyes, but instead, I stared at my blue eyes and extensive black hair. Although I was used to feeling my hair on my back when I moved, I certainly was not used to seeing it.

"Hey! You look lonely!" a very high-pitched voice shouted. I moved away from the railing to face another Wavemaster who was about my height.

She wore blue and white baggy clothes with a matching hat that covered her short pink hair. I was fascinated with her hat. It was split in two and hung down her sides like elongated rabbit ears.

"I don't have anyone else to play with right now," she whined, reminding me of a lost puppy. "Would you like to go dungeon-crawling with me?"

"Dungeon-crawling?" I repeated. "I don't know what that is."

"Its basically the same thing as going for the Gott Statue in the dungeon," she explained quickly. I noticed that she was a fast talker. "I don't really care for leveling up. I like getting rare items." I swore her character's eyes sparkled at the word "rare."

"Uh, sure," I told her. I figured it wouldn't do any harm, seeing as Kite and BlackRose weren't online and I had nothing better to do.

She smiled widely and I noticed one of her canine teeth was more pointed than the other. I had to admit: some characters were pretty adorable.

"Great!" she said, raising a fist. I kept pace next to her as we walked toward the Chaos Gate. "My name is Mistral, by the way!"

"I'm Rin."

Once we arrived at the swirling circle, being mindful to stay out of everyone's way, Mistral turned toward me with a dissatisfied look on her face. "Stupid CC Corp. needs to fix these member address glitches."

"Just tell me which area you're going to and I'll follow," I lied.

She opened the keyword screen and scrolled through them for a few minutes, softly singing, "It's a small world after all. It's a small world after all…" She then gasped and smiled. "I know the perfect keywords. Indiscreet, Hot-Blooded, Judgment!" I grabbed onto her hat before she warped to the area.

Within seconds, we were taken to almost barren desert. I glanced around, noting how different this area was to the area Tsukiko told me to go to. This one was pretty depressing and I instantly disliked it.

Massive bones of decayed animals sprouted from the sand we walked on. Although it didn't feel like real sand under my feet, it still made the soft crunching noise of real sand when our feet hit it. As I followed Mistral to the dungeon, I also noticed partly-buried structures. I began to wonder what the background story for this area was.

"This is it!" Mistral declared when we arrived at a huge monster's skull. Its mouth was propped open with two long wooden poles and I guessed that was the entrance to the dungeon.

As soon as we walked into its mouth, I wanted to puke. Instead of the dungeon looking like an actual dungeon, it was the inside of the monster's body. Bones and veins stuck out from the fleshy walls and the floor made squishing noises as we walked.

"I guess I should have thought this through better," Mistral mumbled to herself as I tried to ignore how disgusting this place was.

"What do you mean?"

She giggled nervously and glanced at me. "Well, neither of us is really prepared to fight monsters. I haven't been playing this game very long, so I only have four spells to attack with."

_I don't even know how to cast spells._

"I have a lot of scrolls, though," she reassured. "You can heal and I'll attack, okay?"

"Uh-"

"We're going to be the best Wavemaster party this game will ever know!"

I didn't want to say anything to disappoint her or to make her suspicious that something wasn't right about me, so I kept quiet. I _really_ wanted to say something, though, when we came to a room with a Chaos Gate in it and Mistral ran straight for it. A cluster of bees appeared in its place. My fingers automatically curled around a staff.

"Rai Rom!" Mistral shouted, raising her staff above her head. Under the bees, a yellow circle formed and lightening flew up from it, striking the bees. The buzzed angrily and slammed down on her. I heard a soft beeping noise coming from her character.

"What is that?" I yelled, slowly starting to panic.

"My health is low!" she cried out. "Heal me!"

_You're expecting too much! I don't know how to heal-_

"Repth!" I unwillingly yelled. Mistral shined with a white color for half a second and the beeping went away. I had healed her. How, though?

The fight continued like that for about five minutes. While Mistral attacked the bees, I healed her. With every "repth" I shouted, I could feel my energy draining bit by bit. By the time the battle was over, I was panting.

"Hey, are you okay?" Mistral asked, coming closer to me. I nodded as our staffs disappeared.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Was that your first battle?"

"Um, yeah," I lied.

She grinned mischievously. "I took your battle-virginity," she whispered. I couldn't help it. I started laughing and didn't stop for a long time. My eyes even watered up.

_Technically, Balmung took my battle-virginity. Oh, man…_

"What's so funny?" Mistral asked in between laughs. We had been laughing together for a good three minutes.

"I don't even know," I said, gasping for breath. My stomach muscles were becoming sore. "I guess the way you said that was funny."

I covered my mouth to stifle my laughs as Mistral pushed me forward. My happiness ended quickly, though, when a round item bounced in the corner of the room. I swore I heard someone say, "Bloody egg!" in a weak voice.

"Mistral, what is that?" I asked, moving closer to her character for protection.

We inched closer to it and I saw that it actually was an egg. Mistral lifted a hand and it disappeared into her body.

"That," she said, smirking at me, "is a Bloody Egg. When the Theta server opens, we'll be able to raise Grunties again. This'll come in handy."

Grunties? They sounded gross.

"Raise what?" I asked as we continued on.

"Grunties! They're these little pig-looking animals in The World and they're so cute! Once they grow into adults, you get to ride them around fields!" She reminded me of the first time I ever saw a horse when I was twelve. I was so in love with them for about two years. Thankfully, I grew out of it.

We fought our way through two levels of monsters. By the time we reached the Gott Statue, I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was take a bath, go to bed, and wake up in the morning to see this was all a dream. Yet, I knew it wasn't a dream.

"Oh, man," Mistral mumbled in a disappointed tone after she opened the treasure chest. I watched the statue of Vulcan, the fire god, fall and crumble in the hole under where it had floated. "I've had these items before. Do you want them, Rin?"

I shook my head. I didn't want anything I didn't need. "No, but thank you anyway," I told her. She moved away from the chest, her shoulders slumped, and sighed.

"I guess we can go now."

Without another word, we were warped to the entrance of the dungeon, then back to town. It was hard to believe how upset she was over not getting a new item.

"Are you okay?" I asked her when we returned to Mac Anu.

She hesitated before replying. "Yeah," she muttered, "I'm okay. It's just that I love item-hunting and I get so excited over new items." Suddenly, she perked back up to her normal obnoxious self. "But it's okay! I mean, that's the fun of being a rare item collector! You never know what you're going to get!"

_Life's like a box of chocolates, I suppose…_

"Well, I need to start dinner," she said. She took me by surprise when she raised a hand and patted the top of my head. "I can tell you're going through a lot right now, Rin. I'm pretty good at reading people, even through a game."

Normally I would move away from her touch, but I found it oddly comforting. I was almost sad that she was logging off. I wasn't exactly ready to be alone again.

"I've been told I'm good at giving advice. I know you don't really know me, but if you ever want to talk to someone, I'm here," she said sincerely.

I didn't really know how to respond to that, so I just told her, "Thank you."

"I'll see you later, Rin!"

I wanted to ask her to stay for a few more minutes, but golden rings surrounded her character and she faded away. Once she was gone, I turned to face the rest of the town. It was still pretty crowded, so I pushed my way through the clusters of people until I reached the back alley where I first woke up at.

It felt as if my heart had dropped into my stomach when I saw him sitting against the wall. His arms were wrapped around his legs, pulling them tightly to his chest in a defensive way and his forehead rested on his knees. His wings almost closed around him, forming a shell of some sort. From what I could see, his armor had been altered.

I advanced slowly, keeping my right hand on the stone wall. His warning from before replayed over and over in my head.

"…_I will kill you."_

"Balmung, it's me. Rin."


	5. Dead End

Balmung lifted his head slightly, but he didn't look at me. I was scared to move any closer to him, but I pushed myself toward him anyway when he dropped his head again. Something wasn't right.

"Balmung," I repeated a little louder. I kneeled in front of him, listening to his heavy breathing. If I didn't know better, I would've thought he was sleeping.

I was able to inspect his armor better at the new position I was in. Most of the silver armor was off, but it still covered places where his vital organs would be. More of the blue under armor-looking cloth showed on his body.

I was beginning to feel awkward just sitting there, waiting for him to respond to my voice. I figured I needed to provoke him physically, so I tapped on his head with my finger.

_Man, he has soft hair. _

"Uhhh…"

He seemed to struggle to lift his head up, but when our eyes met, I saw that almost all the color had been drained from them. He looked sick.

"Balmung, are you okay?" I asked, sounded a little too concerned.

"It hurts to move," he whispered. "Sit next to me. I can't keep myself up any longer."

I didn't hesitate to sit next to him, resting my back against the stone wall. As soon as I did, he groaned and fell onto me. Unlike Kite, his body was warm. Being mindful of keeping him as still as possible, I moved so his head lay in my lap. I felt his breath on my leg.

Staying curled in a ball, he closed his eyes tightly. "Rin, do something," he ordered. "I don't know what's happening to my body. It hurts."

_What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?_

I tried my hardest to stay calm, but it was hard when he was wincing and moaning in pain. I thought of Mistral and how I had healed her when she almost died in the dungeon. I didn't have my staff, though, because I wasn't in battle.

I couldn't think of anything else, so I put my right palm on his forehead. "Repth," I whispered. Like Mistral, he glowed for a short second, and then sighed in relief.

He sat up from my lap and turned to look at me. "Thank you, Rin. Also, I apologize for falling into you like that," he said. I was terrified to talk and when I remained silent, he gave me an odd look. "What is it?" he asked.

"You threatened my life earlier."

He moved his gaze down to his hands. He balled them up into fists and I wondered if I should run away, screaming for help. But he only sighed and closed his eyes. "I did," he whispered. "I'm sorry for that, too."

_Are you bipolar or something?_

"Uh, its okay, I guess," I mumbled, feeling very inept. "What happened anyway? Why were you all…um, broken?" I couldn't think of a better word for the condition I found him in.

"I can only believe it was the fighting I've been participating in," Balmung answered. "I had exhausted myself. I'm thankful you knew what to do."

Actually, I had no idea what to do. I took a wild shot in the dark, but there was no way I was going to admit that to him.

"Thank you again, Rin," he said, meeting my eyes again. I looked away and stared at my hands in my lap.

"You're welcome," I whispered. I still felt extremely awkward, sitting there with him. Alone. With no protection.

I couldn't help but flinch when he rotated his body to lean against the wall like I was. The odd part about it was that he seemed completely comfortable around me, almost as if we'd been friends for years.

Letting out a heavy breath, he stretched his legs out in front of him. "I don't understand what is happening, Rin. I suppose you are unable to log out, too."

"You're right," I told him. It felt nice to be able to talk to someone about it-someone who could relate to me. Balmung and I were in the same boat. We were stuck in The World, living as our characters. That was something Kite and BlackRose couldn't understand the way we did.

"Do you wonder our bodies in the real world?" he asked.

_That's a stupid question, Balmung. Of course I do. Actually, I wonder how Tsukiko is doing. Or Dad. How are they holding up?_

"I do," he said, bringing me back to our conversation. I'd been so lost in my own thoughts, I didn't even realize that he was looking down at me. When I met his gaze, he slowly looked away, watching the building across from us.

"Oh, yeah?"

Balmung nodded. "Yes. I have many responsibilities in the real world. I wonder how my brothers and sisters are doing, who took my place at my job, who is keeping all my schoolwork." He placed his left hand on his stomach. "I worry about it all so much that it makes me nauseous."

_Siblings? A job? School? Why is he telling me all this? He doesn't even know me._

"Do you have those kinds of responsibilities, Rin?"

"Uh, yeah," I answered. "I have a little sister, but you know that. I don't have a job, but I had an interview scheduled for next week." I frowned. I _really_ wanted that job, but I doubted they would hire somebody in a coma as a waitress. "I'm a junior in high school, so I have schoolwork, too."

Strangely enough, I didn't have a problem telling him those things. From the way he spoke to me, I could tell he was a gentleman, which was a rare finding in this day and age.

_But he did threaten to kill Kite, BlackRose, and me. Well, he was scared and probably confused. I'm sure he didn't mean it._

"A junior?" he repeated. "I feel old."

I couldn't help but laugh at him. "Old?" I said in between laughs. "Let me guess: you're in college or a teacher or something?"

"I'm not in college yet. I'm a year older than you."

He was even in my age group. It was definitely nice having him around, knowing I could relate to him even more.

"A senior, huh?" I said. "You're almost done."

"I don't know about that," he replied with a frown. "I hope we're able to return to the real world soon, or I may be attending my second year as a senior." Then, without any warning, he stood up and bowed slightly to me. "I'm sorry, Rin, but I seemed to have lost track of time. I must be going now. I will see you around."

I watched him turn the corner and walk away, trying to ignore the growing feeling of loneliness in my gut.

_What the heck was that all about?_

:-:-:-:

Over the next few days, I met with BlackRose and we explored various areas to become familiar with them. I explained Mistral to her and she was thankful that I knew how to heal. As we battled monsters, I learned more healing spells and even how to revive her.

That experience had terrified me. BlackRose had been swinging her sword at a large tree-like monster while I was running from a monster that resembled a Wavemaster. Because of my lack of attention, BlackRose was killed and her transparent ghost replaced her body. She screamed at me to do something and without meaning to, I chanted, "Rip Maen!" and brought her back to life. I never wanted that to happen again.

We never mentioned anything that involved our real lives and I was okay with that. Balmung was the only person I was willing to tell those kinds of things to. BlackRose seemed just as private as I was.

When she reached level 13, she met me in Mac Anu near the Chaos Gate.

"Hey, Rin!" she called when she arrived. "They've fixed the Theta server's Root Town. I've sent a message to Kite to meet us there. Are you ready?"

Excitement filled my body. Although there were an infinite number of areas to explore, I was becoming bored with Mac Anu. "Yeah!" I replied.

:-:-:-:

Highland City Dun Loireag was much smaller than Mac Anu, but I was glad that the scenery was completely different.

Huge rocks sprouted up from an area below us that reminded me of the vast emptiness near the cathedral. Shops were built into the rocks and they had their own land platforms, bound together by flimsy-looking pieces of wood that served as bridges.

As we explored the area while waiting for Kite to show up, I noticed that BlackRose tried her hardest to avoid walking over the bridges.

_She's acrophobic. _

I didn't blame her. When I walked over them, I swore I heard creaking noises. I tried my hardest to ignore it, but it still got under my skin.

"What is this place?" BlackRose asked when we came to the largest rock in the town. A wooden fence surrounded part of the area. It held a tiny pig that watched us with huge eyes as we came closer.

"That must be a Grunty," I said, watching the pig. It trotted to us and sniffed my leg. Part of me wanted to kick it away.

_It wasn't cute when it was hanging from Tsukiko's backpack and it's still not cute. It better not pee on my leg…_

While BlackRose talked to the nearby NPC about raising one, I explored the ranch. I found an empty spot behind the large stone and smiled to myself. Unlike the back alley in Mac Anu, this spot had a wonderful view of a sunset and clouds that slowly drifted by.

I thought of Balmung. All I wanted to do at that point was sit in this spot with him and talk about anything and everything. Then, when we became even more comfortable, I'd scoot closer and he'd wrap his arm around me, pulling my face in with his free hand an-

_Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. No. Definitely not. Bad. No._

"Rin?" BlackRose called, peeking around the corner. "Kite is here. He's at the Chaos Gate. He…said he wants us to meet someone." She sounded somewhat upset, but I was relieved anyway. Thankfully, she pulled me away from my thoughts.

We could see a player with a huge build when we walked back to the Chaos Gate. He smiled down on us when we came closer. "Ah!" he called in an obnoxiously loud voice that didn't fit his character. "You two ladies must be Rin and BlackRoast!"

"Yeah, we- Hey!" BlackRose yelled. "What did you call me?"

Kite nervously laughed and stood in between the two. "BlackRose, Rin, this is Piros. I met him the other day in a dungeon. Piros, this is Rin and Black_Rose._"

Piros held out a large hand toward BlackRose. "It is a pleasure to meet you, BlackRose," he said. Well, _yelled_ is a better word. I don't think he knew how to speak in a soft voice.

BlackRose ignored him and turned to Kite. I frowned at her for being rude. "So, we're going to Quiet, Eternal, White Devil, right?" she questioned.

While they talked about the area, I looked at Piros and forced a smile onto my face. "Hi," I said. He awkwardly moved his hand over to me and I grabbed it as much as I could. "It's nice to meet you."

Piros and I started a conversation about how he and Kite met. Apparently, Kite had saved him from a monster, but they worked amazingly well as a team. I'm not sure why, but it made me a little jealous to know how well they worked together.

During our talking, I overheard Kite and BlackRose talk about an "infected" area they had both been to at separate times. From what I heard, Kite had run into a Data Bug and encountered another Wavemaster. He then asked her about protected areas, but my conversation with Piros ended and he interrupted them.

"Shall we go?" he asked.

"…can't get in- Oh, uh, yeah," Kite said, moving toward the Chaos Gate. He entered the keywords and looked back at me before warping. He held out his hand, which I inconspicuously grabbed, and everything went black.

I swear, the time it took to warp to different places got shorter every time we did it. I blinked and we were suddenly standing in a winter forest. Snowflakes slowly danced down from the dark sky and I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out and try to catch a few.

The area would have been perfectly beautiful if it weren't damaged by random patches of data code. Character streams floated through the air around us. I reached out to touch one, but it curved around my hand, avoiding it.

"We got right in. That was easy," BlackRose muttered to herself, looking at the ground in front of her. A patch of 0s and 1s extended out for a few yards.

I yelped, covered my ears, and shut my eyes tightly when my vision flickered and a deafening static noise sounded.

"What was that?" I whispered to Kite, opening one eye to peek at him.

He grimaced and shook his head. "There must be something here." His words made my stomach clench. I felt like I was going to puke.

"Something?" BlackRose asked, her voice shaking. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's the same as the other day," Kite told her.

"The cathedral wasn't like this," I butted in without thinking first.

"No, not there. The other day, I went to Expansive, Haunted, Sea of Sand on the Delta server. It was exactly like this when I got there."

That Data Bug they had mentioned earlier was there. Could we kill another one without Balmung with us?

"Let's go!" Piros announced and took off toward the dungeon. Reluctantly, I followed the three of them, my heart pounding in my ears with every step we took.

:-:-:-:

As we fought our way through the dungeon, I made a mental note to never be a part of a party that included Piros and BlackRose together. Almost the whole time we descended further into the dungeon, they argued over the stupidest things and annoyed me to no end.

Finally, we stopped in an empty room. "A dead-end," Kite whispered. His voice echoed on the walls.

"Are you sure?" I asked in confusion. "Have we been to every other room?"

"We've cleared out the dungeon. There's nothing here."

"We've mastered this dungeon!" Piros exclaimed in victory. "There is no mystery."

But Kite stared forward in disbelief. "Kite?" I mumbled, tapping his arm.

"They're not here," he said to me. "Neither the girl nor the thing with the red wand are here."


	6. Smile

Oh, man, you guys. I'm _so_ sorry for not updating this in months. I feel so terrible. The explaination for it is that I lost interest in this story and picked up on others to write. But! I won't let it happen again! I promise!

Enjoy and review, please!

* * *

><p>"He should be here soon," BlackRose told me for the fourth time in the past half hour. I was getting bored watching people warp through the Chaos Gate in Dun Loireag while waiting for Kite to show up.<p>

"Are you sure?" I whispered rudely.

"Did you say something?"

"No."

I slowly moved my gaze to a trio of male players who had been staring at us for a good five minutes. I heard them whisper to each other, so I knew they weren't sitting idle. BlackRose must've noticed them, too, because she sighed heavily and whispered for Kite to hurry up.

He didn't show up for another ten minutes, and when he did, he came with another Twin Blade. She wore blue clothes with pale green hair. When he smiled to us, she somewhat hid behind him, making me incredibly uncomfortable.

"Who is this?" I asked a little too discourteously. I didn't mean to. I just didn't want to involve another innocent player in something that could get them injured.

"She's a friend I helped out yesterday," Kite explained. "She had trouble getting to the Gott Statue."

"Hi!" the girl greeted loudly. Why did Kite meet annoyingly loud people? "I'm Natsume! I want to be just like Kite! It's nice to meet you!"

"I'm BlackRose! Likewise!"

I frowned at her, disappointed that she wasn't on my side. I didn't want to be the only one who was unfriendly to Natsume, especially if we were all going to an area together.

Natsume turned to me with a fake smile on her face. "And you are?"

"Leaving," I told her. I looked at Kite and BlackRose. "Sorry guys, but I have to meet someone. I can't go today," I lied. I didn't need to meet anyone, but I hoped I'd run into Mistral.

"Uh, okay," Kite mumbled.

I walked off toward the Grunty Ranch in an irritated state of mind. I wanted it to just be Kite, BlackRose, and me going through dungeons. I didn't want it to involve anyone else. I suppose the fact that Kite was herding in more people made me jealous.

Sitting against the rock and watching the clouds made me feel a little better, but I still wanted to confront Kite and ask him why he was bringing people along on dangerous missions. It wasn't fair to them. If something happened while they were with him, their wounds would be on his head.

The clouds drifting by made me sleepy. I almost fell asleep, but I shook myself out of it. If a player came by and saw me sleeping, what would they think?

I took this alone time as a chance to examine myself. I curled my fingers inward toward my palm and brought them close to my face. From all the battling I'd done in the past few days, I expected dirt to be nestled under my fingernails, but my skin was clear of any grime. I certainly felt dirty, especially my hair.

I wrapped a good portion of my long hair around my middle and pointer finger. It felt heavy, as if I hadn't washed it for two weeks, but it didn't have a scent nor did it look or feel greasy. Maybe I was just going crazy.

"You look silly."

The voice made me jump and smack the back of my head against the rock. I entwined my fingers in my hair, pressing against the back of my skull to stop the dull pain, and glared up at Balmung, who was making his way to stand in front of me, blocking my beautiful view.

"Its not like I wanted to be alone or anything," I snapped at him. He raised a brow and shrugged, turning around and walking off the way he came, waving to me over his shoulder.

"Later," I swore I heard him say.

"Balmung, wait!" I called, the feeling of guilt hitting my gut. I tried my hardest not to smile when his head poked out from around the corner. "Sorry. I don't mind you being here."

His eyes, or what I could see of them, narrowed slightly in disbelief, but he took a seat next to me anyway. "You seem irritable today," he told me bluntly.

I thought of Kite, Natsume, and Piros. Hugging my legs to my chest, I nodded slowly. "I'm just a little annoyed with a friend."

"The brightly-colored Twin Blade?" he guessed. "If I remember right, his name is Kite."

"Yeah, him."

"I won't ask for the details. I'm sure its personal." He covered his mouth with his left hand and yawned quietly.

_I want to tell you so badly. I don't have anyone else to vent to. What harm could possibly come from telling you? _

I inhaled deeply and just blurted everything out. "Ever since we started investigating the weird things going on with this game, it seems like Kite is getting more and more innocent people involved and it really isn't fair to them. I mean, what if something happens and they end up like us? I don't think Kite is even thinking about the chance of that happening." I closed my eyes and relaxed my tensed shoulders. "Maybe I'm just freaking out over nothing. Kite must be pretty confident in himself if he's taking random people with him."

"No," Balmung said, looking straight ahead. "I believe you have a good reason to be concerned with his actions. Kite is a new player. He is wandering into places he shouldn't go, am I correct?"

"Yeah," I replied. "Just the other day, we went to a dungeon where someone supposedly saw that girl and that…thing that trapped us here."

Something in his eyes changed. I couldn't tell what it was, but he was suddenly tremendously interested in what I was saying. "Did you find anything there?"

"No, there was nothing. Kite was pretty upset about it."

He turned his head to stare at the clouds again, frowning slightly. "I see." There was a grim tone to his voice. "I fear we may be stuck here forever."

My heart dropped into my gut and I gradually curled my arms around my stomach. "I really hope not." Hearing him say that scared the living hell out of me because he made it obvious that he had little hope. It made me wonder what he was up to when I wasn't around.

"Don't worry too much about it. I'm sure your friend will take care of it," he said sarcastically.

Before I allowed myself to become too annoyed with his immature remarks, I changed the subject. "So, what do you do when you're on your own?"

Balmung pushed himself from the rock and stood up in front of me, holding out his hand to hoist me up. "I'll show you."

:-:-:-:

"What are we doing here?" I questioned, staring ahead at the huge dried-up ocean. Still keeping his firm grip on my left wrist, Balmung pulled me ahead toward a Magic Portal.

He didn't answer me as we came closer, but fear struck me hard and I tried pulling away. "Calm down," he told me. "I won't let anything hurt you."

Those words gave me a strange sense of comfort, like everything was going to be just fine, no matter what happened. The portal expanded and let loose an old mage sitting on an energy ball. Balmung smirked and released his grip on me, grabbing for his blade. My staff appeared in my hand and I already knew what I was in charge of: healing.

The mage was fast and I watched Balmung chase it about quickly. Many times, it had flanked the winged man and sent him rolling in the dirt, trying to grab for it. I tried my hardest not to smile at his struggle, but I failed myself.

"What're you smiling about?" Balmung asked once he had finally destroyed the small creature. I shook my head at him, not even trying to hide it.

"Oh, nothing," I told him, glancing away. "You just looked funny chasing that thing around."

He raised his eyebrows at me and lifted a hand to place on the top of my head. After a moment of stillness, he gently moved his palm, making a mess of my hair. I pushed myself from him, trying to shield my hair from his sight.

"Why'd you do that?" I complained, giving him another small grin.

"You need to calm down," he replied simply. "From what I see, you're too wound up about everything going on."

I placed my hands on my hips. "So you screw up my hair to calm me down?"

Balmung sighed in annoyance and shook his head. "No, Rin, that's not why. Whenever my younger sister is upset, I mess up her hair. It doesn't make her problem go away, but it makes her smile."

I finished fixing my hair just as he finished speaking. My cheeks heated up and I moved my gaze to the ground. "You did it so I'd smile?"

"Now you understand."

_I have to admit, I do feel a little better about everything._

I walked closer to Balmung, my heart beating loudly in my head, and wrapped my arms around his neck in a tight hug, standing on my toes as I did so. "Thank you, Balmung," I told him, feeling his arms snake around my waist.

"You're welcome. Now, shall we continue to kill things?"

We released each other and I nodded without hesitation. "As long as you promise to look as stupid as possible."

A handsome smile graced his face. "I'll try."


	7. Strange Rooms

I passed the days (or weeks, I truly couldn't tell you) by spending my time with Balmung. We had battled our way through countless dungeons and fields, exploring things that weren't quite the same from behind a computer terminal.

I quickly realized how much longer I could run without becoming breathless, how powerful I felt when I sent bolts of lightening (or fire, or ice shards, or whatever else I fancied at the time) crashing down on an enemy, and how much I enjoyed the distraction Balmung offered.

When I was by his side, backing him up in battle or just making small talk, I didn't think about how my real life was probably crashing down around me while I lay unconscious in a hospital bed. We talked about everything there really was to talk about.

While I told him my hobby of playing the piano, he told me his fascination with motorcycles in return. He talked about the different types, the big and small parts, and how fast some could go. It was hard not to stare with a smile when he explained the rush of adrenaline a person gets while racing full-speed through traffic, narrowly avoiding cars.

"It's an amazing feeling that you're just barely avoiding certain death while speeding down a highway at 90 miles per hour," he had told me, then shot me a self-conscious look. "Does that sound weird?"

"A little," I'd told him. "But that's okay."

Although I found myself longing to be in his presence almost all the time, reality finally caught up to me.

I warped into Dun Loireag at the wrong time. Kite and BlackRose stood patiently, as if waiting for someone. Unfortunately, that someone seemed to be me.

"Well, look who it is," BlackRose mumbled grimly.

"Hey, Rin," Kite greeted. "We were just heading out. I invited another Wavemaster. She should be here soon."

I closed my eyes, trying not to explode on him. "Another random player?" I whispered to myself, and then I looked up at the two of them. "Where are you guys going?"

"Cursed, Despaired, Paradi-"

"I'm here!" an obnoxious voice rang out from behind us. We turned to see Mistral running in our direction, waving her arms like a mad woman. "Sorry I took so long! I had to restock my healing scrolls!"

"Mistral?" I muttered, turning to Kite. "You invited Mistral?"

"You know Mistral?" Kite questioned me.

Mistral laughed and nudged me playfully. "Oh, yeah! Rin and I are good friends! Rin, didn't you tell him yet?"

"Um, tell him what?"

"We're the ultimate Wavemaster party!" Mistral suddenly faced BlackRose and grinned widely. "Hey there! I'm Mistral!"

"I'm BlackRose," the Heavy Blade replied in an off tone. I learned it was easy to tell when BlackRose wasn't in a good mood. She treated everyone like dirt when she was upset.

They started a one-sided hostile conversation about hardships and worrying. Kite looked at me hopelessly. "So," he said, "where have you been for the past few days?"

"Oh, you know," I replied awkwardly. "I've been around." I wasn't sure if he'd get upset, knowing I was hanging around Balmung, so I decided not to tell him. Besides, it really wasn't any of his business.

Kite gave me an off smile and turned to BlackRose, his smile quickly disappearing. He invited the two into his party and I stood on the opposite side of him, grabbing his hand so I wouldn't be left behind. He entered the keywords, but the screen in front of him flashed red letters that read, "PROTECTED AREA."

"How do we get in?" I asked him, believing we hit another dead end.

"Watch," he told me. The letters moved to the corner of the screen and shrank when a strange-looking cross-shape appeared. He rotated the cross and inserted small vivid boxes into places that were missing them. "They're Virus Cores. I need them to get into protected areas."

"Where'd you learn to do this?" BlackRose asked grumpily.

"From Mia."

"Who's Mia?"

"A friend of mine," Kite answered. He had a certain kind of edge in his tone that made it obvious he didn't want to be questioned about it. "She looks like a cat."

"A cat? You mean, like a real cat?"

"No!" Mistral replied. "She's like, half-cat, half-human!"

"Have you met her?" BlackRose snapped at the Wavemaster, placing both hands on her hips.

"Nope! I only know from what he told me," she replied, jabbing a finger in Kite's direction.

I sighed loudly and Kite took the hint that we should warp. Within seconds, the four of us were in an entirely new area. The graphics were broken with data code. I tried to grab the small data streams floating around in the air, but they smoothly moved away from my hands.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Mistral cried out, rushing toward the dungeon.

As we fought our way to the bottom floor, we set up a successful battle plan without even realizing it. Kite and BlackRose did the close-up physical fighting while Mistral and I stayed in the back, delivering magical attacks between healing the two of them.

I found Mistral was more useful than before. She quickly found the monster's weaknesses and called out which kind of spell I had to use against them. Almost every time I attacked, the words, "Elemental Critical" popped up from their bodies.

When we reached the bottom, we stood in front of a door with purple mist rising up from the floor. Mistral chuckled evilly, rubbing her palms together.

"Looks promising," she muttered.

We didn't waste time talking about it. We walked through the mist, entering a room that had a pure white interior. There were no walls or floor or ceiling. Just white.

A few feet away from us stood a canopy bed that reminded me of the one I had when I was younger. Small, brown teddy bears were scattered around and on it. I felt like they were all watching us. I shivered.

"What is this?" BlackRose whispered to herself.

As if answering her, a man's voice echoed around us, "And so I shall name her Aura. Without you, she would not exist. The shining girl, Aura. We will entrust her with our will. Our future is in her hands. She is our-" We waited for him to keep talking, but he didn't continue.

"Hey! Is this the ghost everyone is talking about?" Mistral asked, waving her staff in the air. "Come on out, ghost! Show yourself!"

I made my way over to the bed, feeling the old-fashioned blanket that was neatly placed over it. It looked as if it hadn't been used in years.

"I wonder if Aura is that girl," Kite muttered.

"The one who gave you the bracelet?"

"Yeah."

The three of them gasped simultaneously and stared forward for a moment. I glanced around, not really knowing what was going on, and waved my hand in front of Mistral's face.

"You guys?" I asked.

"Are you seeing this?" BlackRose asked.

"Yeah," Kite replied.

"What does it mean?" Mistral questioned.

"Nothing makes sense."

I frowned at them. Obviously whatever was going on was a "normal player only" deal. I had asked them what they were looking at, but they shook their heads, each saying they couldn't explain it. In the end, Kite decided there was nothing else to do and we returned to Dun Loireag.

"Well," Kite muttered disappointedly, "I've got exams coming up soon, so I'm going to log off. I'll see you guys later."

"I've got to go, too," Mistral told us. "I was supposed to start dinner half an hour ago. Bye!"

Once they were gone, I turned to BlackRose. "Okay, what's wrong?" I demanded to know.

She sighed and started walking toward the Grunty Ranch. "I've got to check on my animal-thing," she told me. I followed closely behind her, listening to her talk on the way. "Its school. I'm not sure what I did, but lately, it seems like my entire tennis team is against me."

A small Grunty rushed to her ankles when we arrived. It makes a somewhat cute squealing noise and opened its mouth for food. She held out her hand toward it, small apples in her palm, and the Grunty's tongue wrapped around them and brought them to it's mouth.

"How so?" I asked her.

"Someone cut the laces on my shoes and my close friend, Risa, is ignoring me during practice."

Risa? That name sounded vaguely familiar. Where did I hear that name from? Then, it hit me.

"Do you go to Asahi Senior High?" I quickly asked her. I could feel my heartbeat speeding up with every word.

BlackRose stared at me for a long time, then slowly answered, "Yeah, why?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but decided not to. "I was just wondering."

"Do you know Risa?"

"I, uh-"

"You know, Rin," she started, "there was a girl in my P.E. class who fell into a coma on the first day of school while playing this game."

_Oh, crap. Oh, crap. Oh, crap._

"Oh, that's terrible," I hurriedly said, reaching down to pet her Grunty. I had to admit, they had adorable eyes.

"Do you want to know what I think? I think that girl, Ayano Keiko, is you."

_Busted._

I sighed and bowed my head. "Okay, fine. _Yes_, I'm Ayano Keiko. Wait, if you're in my P.E. class, then you must be…" I thought for a moment. She wasn't Risa. "Are you an upperclassman or under?"

She smirked, seemingly enjoying this little guessing game. "Under."

There was only one other underclassman who was friends with Risa. "Hayami Akira."

"Bingo."

I stared at her for a long time, thinking how strange it was to be standing in front of her. In real life, I'd never talked to the girl, but here, we were almost close friends. None of her physical features here resembled her true ones. But, I suppose that's the beauty of role-playing.

We found ourselves behind the Grunty Ranch. She seemed to enjoy watching the clouds float by just as I did.

"Why do you think everyone is being like that?" I asked her.

At first, she shrugged. "Well, I made first in singles on the team. Everyone was kind of shocked, so that might be why everyone else is suddenly against me. But I don't know why Risa…"

"I wouldn't worry about it," I told her. "If people are going to be like that toward you, then its their problem. Just keep doing what you're doing. They'll realize eventually that they're in the wrong."

"I guess so." She stood up slowly. "Well, I've got exams, too. So, I'll see you later, Keiko. Is it okay if I call you that?"

I smiled softly at her and nodded. "Only when its just you and me."

"Right. Well, bye!"

"Bye, Akira."

Once she was gone, I sat in silence. I still found it really weird that I'd been playing with a girl from my P.E. class this entire time. It made me think of Tsukiko. Why hadn't I run into her character yet?

I remained in that peaceful spot for a little while longer, allowing my thoughts to drift to Balmung. Was he investigating the exact same things we were? What was he thinking about? Had he run into any of his school friends? Did anyone at his school know he was Balmung of the Azure Sky?

I shook my questions off, deciding I would ask him about it all the next time I was with him. If I remembered. I had a horrible habit of forgetting things when I was with him.

:-:-:-:

Balmung and I hadn't run into each other for two days. I spent my time trying to figure out how to raise my own Grunty. Yes, I caved, but they weren't so ugly as babies.

I finally concluded that I'd been spending too much time on the Theta server and returned to Mac Anu. I wandered around the shops, only to be stopped by an orange-clad player.

"Hey, Rin," Kite greeted me. He wore a buoyant smile on his face. "Do you want to come with BlackRose and me?"

"Um, to where?" I asked. If the keywords sounded too ominous, I wouldn't go.

"Buried, Pagan, Fiery Sands. We're supposed to meet a player named Linda there."

I frowned, thinking of the party members. Oddly enough, I felt anxious when Mistral wasn't a member with us. Call me crazy, but having another Wavemaster there calmed me. It made me feel like all the pressure wasn't just on me.

Even though I wanted to tell Kite I had something else to do, I didn't want to leave him and BlackRose without a Wavemaster for healing. "Sure," I reluctantly said.

"BlackRose should be at the Chaos Gate now. Lets go."

The landscape of the area reminded me of the type Balmung had taken me to. As we made our way through the field and dungeon, I noticed my other two party members were being abnormally quiet. I decided against asking about it.

"Are you Orca's friend?" a female player asked when we reached the bottom of the dungeon. She was a Long Arm and looked like a lot of the other character designs I'd seen in the Root Towns.

"Yes," Kite responded. "You must be Linda."

"I am." She cleared her throat softly. "I heard about that rumor from Bob. The World isn't just some Internet game. There's something much larger agenda at work here."

I noticed BlackRose gave me a quick glance and I knew what she was thinking.

_Yeah, lady, you don't need to tell us something we already know._

"Do you know what that agenda is?" Kite urged her.

Her shoulders lifted, then dropped. "Who knows? After all, that's just a rumor. But that's what Orca and Balmung were trying to figure out, and you know how they both ended up."

"Balmung?" I repeated, taking a small step toward her.

Linda turned her head in my direction, giving me a peculiar look. "Yeah, do you know him?"

"Uh, not really." Lie.

"Orca of the Azure Sea, Balmung of the Azure Sky; the Descendants of Fianna who formed the ultimate party. If something like this could happen to the two of them, it could happen to anyone," Linda told us dourly. "Take my advice: quit this game."

Kite shook his head confidently. "I'm afraid I can't do that. I have friends to help."

"I see. In that case, you should go to Lonely, Silent, Great Seal. Orca said he found a weird room there."

"A weird room?" the three of us reiterated.

Linda gave us a furtive smile and said, "May the grace of the Twilight Dragon be with you." Then, she warped out.

:-:-:-:

I felt like we were on a top-secret mission to save someone's life within a time limit. Everything and everyone was moving so quickly that I didn't have time to stop and think about what Linda said.

Lonely, Silent, Great Seal was the exact opposite from the area we were just in. As we dodged the snowflakes falling from the sky and ignored the patches of broken data, we avoided Magic Portals, deciding that it would be best to not get wrapped up in battles.

Our footfalls echoed in the castle-like dungeon as we made our way through it. We didn't speak one word to each other. Everyone was too concentrated on staying alive and getting through each room. Finally, we stopped in front of a pile of purple mist. Before we continued, I cast all the strengthening spells I knew on the three of us.

The room was similar to the one before, but it was lacking the canopy bed and the heaps of teddy bears. It was just white.

"What is this?" Kite growled as if someone had played a hurtful joke on him. "There's nothing here!"

"What's that?" BlackRose asked, pointing to a spot on the floor. I glanced over, not seeing anything. Must've been another "normal player" thing.

"I can't make any sense of it," he told her after a short moment. "Look for more."

They searched the space for maybe five minutes before BlackRose groaned in frustration. "There's nothing here!" she yelled.

Kite fell back to my side and nodded. "Yeah," he whispered, looking at his wrist. "Its like someone intentionally blotted out whatever was here."

"Someone?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"CC. Corp," I added. "But if they wanted to get rid of whatever was here, why not just take out the room completely? Why is this white space still here?"

Nobody had an answer for my questions. Something definitely wasn't right about this company. They were hiding things and it was up to us to figure out what those things were.


	8. Protection

Finally, an update! :D Sorry it took so long. I was busy with band camp and color guard, which I'm really enjoying so far!

Review and enjoy, please! It makes me happy! :D

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><p>"I honestly don't believe the level of the monsters matters to us," Balmung told me, sharing his thoughts as we ventured through a vine-infested forest. "We're unable to level up, so the outcome would be the same whether we fought against a high-leveled or a low-leveled monster."<p>

I ran my hand across a large spider web, watching it break, dangle lifelessly for a few seconds, then fix itself back to its original form. Small digital bugs crawled about on the plants surrounding us and colorful butterflies often flew past our faces.

"I guess you're right," I replied. "But I still feel more comfortable fighting with low-leveled ones."

We descended into the dark cave-like dungeon. Torches on the walls were the only thing lighting the shadowy passageways. Human voices echoed from deeper in the place.

"Its not always right to stay within your comfort zone, Rin," Balmung advised, giving me a concerned look. I shrugged it off and twirled my staff at my side.

"That's true, but sometimes you can get hurt if you go outside your comfort zone."

"How so?"

I placed my free hand on my hip and sighed. "Well, this whole situation, for example. If my sister wouldn't have talked me into starting this game and I wouldn't have given in to her, you and I wouldn't be stuck here."

He stopped walking, so I turned and looked at him. "Are you blaming yourself for this problem?" he asked me harshly. I wasn't quite sure how to answer it, so he went on. "This isn't your fault. You and I were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," then he added shyly, "with the wrong party."

Even though his words put me at ease for a few moments, I went right back to feeling bad about it all. We continued in the dungeon, fighting off the monsters as they came.

"So," he said when we finally stopped to take a break, "have you found out anything else about what's been going on?"

"We met with a player named Linda," I told him. "She gave us keywords to an area that had an empty room. She also said you and Orca had been investigating the weird things going on in this game."

A pompous smirk spread across his face. "Linda, huh?" he mumbled, leaning his head back against the dirt wall behind him. "She's always been nosy. Always getting herself into things that didn't involve her."

"She was nice," I muttered, saying the only thing I could in Linda's defense. I wish I had known more about her.

Thoughts of her brought my mind to Kite. He jumped head-first into danger to save Orca, Balmung, me, and all the other comatose victims. Even though he had the weight of The World on his shoulders, he was still friendly to everyone he met. I, on the other hand, was rude to everyone I came into contact with.

"I'm sure," he replied bitterly before standing up. He held his hand down toward me and I reached up to grab it, being pulled onto my feet.

I waited for him to let go of my hand, but he didn't. With his free hand, he curled his pointer finger under my chin and lifted my face up.

_Very original, Balmung. And now comes the kiss, huh?_

"Stop thinking about the bad things," he ordered, giving me a soft smile. "I don't like it when you frown like that."

Without another word, he continued walking toward a dark hallway. I hesitatingly followed behind him, trying to push off the feeling of embarrassment.

I felt so stupid for thinking he was planning on kissing me. I mean, he didn't know me at all. We were only friends to him, no matter how much I sometimes thought differently.

Balmung was partly to blame, though. If he hadn't been so handsome and polite to female players, he wouldn't have girls throwing themselves at him. I pitied them. From the off-hand stories he told me, girls sent him messages all the time with their phone numbers and sometimes revealing pictures.

"I don't even open the messages anymore," he had told me. "If it is from someone I don't know personally, I delete them without a second thought." Even though the girls tried so hard, he didn't pay attention to them, which sparked an odd question in my mind.

Why did he spend so much time with me? How was I different than those other girls? Was it because, like him, I was comatose and stuck in the game? That had to be it.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Balmung of the Azure Sky."

My head shot up from staring at the ground I was walking on. A party of three players, two females and one male, stood not too far in front of us, their weapons readied for an attack.

Balmung stuck his arm out in front of my body, preventing me from walking any closer to them. He had a serious look on his face as he said, "I don't believe I'm familiar with any of you."

The male of the group grinned innocently, hoisting his thin blade on his shoulder. "But _we're_ familiar with _you_. You should know how well-known you are in this game." His eyes flashed to me. "And who's this? Another fan-girl?"

"I am _not_ a fa-"

"Rin, stop," Balmung hissed. "These players aren't normal."

After scanning their characters, I noticed the strange quirk. Their weapons were out. That didn't happen unless people were engaged in battle with monsters. There weren't any monsters around.

"They don't have character names, either," I commented softly, focusing on the words that appeared above their heads, which also didn't normally happen. Neon green gibberish words floated a few inches above each of them.

"They must be AI," he told me. I gave him a confused glance, so he explained, "Artificial Intelligence. There's a possibility the people who were once behind these characters deleted them before giving them a proper character name."

One of the female characters, who was a Wavemaster, shouted a chant I wasn't familiar with. Their party began to glow a red color and the male character started running at Balmung and me.

Balmung pushed me to the side and caught the attack against his blade, gritting his teeth together tightly. My eyes locked on the two men's figures, until a strange pain settled onto my body. Turning my attention to the two females, I saw that the Wavemaster was holding her staff above her head.

My skin felt unreasonably cold but at the same time, it was stinging me. She was casting an ice-based attack on me. As I held on tighter to my own staff, lifting my arms over my head felt incredibly difficult.

"Gan Don!" I shouted. The empty space above the Wavemaster's head formed a dark circle and large boulders fell from it, landing on both the spell caster and the other female, who had kept her eyes on Balmung with her spear pointed toward him.

The boulders crushed the Wavemaster, leaving her immobile. The Long Arm wasn't hurt as much as her partner, but her leg had been wounded. A rock landed perfectly on her knee, pushing it out in a disfigured way. She cried out in pain and dropped her weapon.

I noticed the clanking of weapons hitting each other and looked back to Balmung and his opponent. They both wore cuts on their skin, some of which blood was running down from.

Gripping on tighter to my staff, I focused on Balmung and yelled, "Repth!" His skin glowed with the healing green color and he began swinging his blade faster and harder.

The male character was thrown off his feet and Balmung took the opportunity to pierce the blade through his chest. As a pained yell came from his mouth, the character's designs trembled before he faded away.

Balmung seemed to relax for a moment, but his eyes widened when he looked behind me. "Duck!" he ordered, moving in my direction.

I didn't have time to think. My knees gave out and I fell to the ground, hearing the familiar clang of the weapons. Slowly, I turned my head, looking at the Long Arm who had just tried to attack me. Her leg was bent disgustingly.

Directly above me, the blade and spear were at war with each other, both trying to dominate the other. I hurried to grab my staff and position it in the right way. With quick effort, I shoved the end of the staff through the Long Arm's body. She disappeared in the same way the male did before.

Once she was gone, Balmung and I remained in our spots in silence, as if waiting for more of them to show up. Suddenly, he took a knee next to me and inspected my face and arms obsessively.

"Are you okay?" he whispered breathlessly. I couldn't reply with my mouth, so I only nodded to him. My body shook from pure fear. If players like that could attack, then how could we know who was a regular player and who wasn't?

He stared at me for a moment with a look of regret on his face. Then, he somewhat awkwardly wrapped his arms around me, placing my head under his chin.

"I'm sorry, Rin," he whispered. "I won't allow something like that to happen to you ever again. I promise."


	9. Terror Of Death

You may have noticed I haven't updated this story in a while. Reason being: school started. D: On the upside, though, I'm actually enjoying my senior year. ^^

Oh, note:

_"Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni?"_

_"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" - Mark 15:34_

Enjoy and review!

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><p>They were planning to go somewhere without me. I just knew it.<p>

I'd seen Kite and BlackRose rush to various shops, often meeting in the center of Dun Loireag to update on their purchases. Then they'd exchange a few items and split up again.

Finally, they met up in front of the Chaos Gate. A frown planted itself onto my face when Mistral warped in, greeting both of them with her usual friendly smile.

"Where are you guys going?" I practically yelled, stomping over to the three players. BlackRose and Mistral whipped their bodies around to stare at me, but Kite's back continued to face me.

"I finally found it," he replied without looking at me. He was hunched over the small screen for hacking into areas.

"It?" I repeated, somewhat lost.

"The monster that attacked you, Orca, and Balmung."

An odd surge of panic and shock shot through my body. I'd almost forgotten about that…_thing._ Adventures with Balmung had distracted me enough to actually allow me to enjoy the game rather than stress myself out about finding a way to escape it.

"I'm coming with you guys," I told him matter-of-factly.

Beside BlackRose, Mistral laughed loudly. "Good luck with that. BlackRose and I practically had to beg Kite to let us come along." The other female player nodded in agreement.

"No," Kite replied, turning his head to look at me. "No offense, but you especially can't come. You know why."

My jaw tightened and my mouth formed into a hard frown. Of course I knew why.

_Because we aren't sure what would happen to me if my character died, huh? _

"I'll be fine," I persisted. "Besides, wouldn't it be more of an advantage to have _two_ Wavemasters in the group instead of just one?"

Kite's blue eyes stared at me for a long while until a defeated sigh came from his lips. "All right," he muttered. "You can come." His right hand extended backward for me to grab onto.

I watched him insert the keywords "Chosen, Hopeless, Nothingness" into the small screen in front of him. I narrowed my eyes at the sound of the area. It already seemed extremely uninviting.

Before I knew it, we had transported to the odd place. It was obviously an earth-based area, what with the almost barren surface and forgotten stone statues. Like all the other areas with something strange hidden inside, the graphics were ruined by masses of data code.

A bright blue light coming from Kite's wrist caught everyone's attention. BlackRose inclined her head to get a better look at it before asking if it was hurting him.

Kite shook his head and replied, "No, not really. But my wrist in real life is tingling."

Just as he finished talking, the light disappeared and Mistral lifted a finger. "There's the dungeon!" she cried out in an excited way. "Let's go!"

The entire field was filled with Magic Portals. Although we tried our hardest to avoid them, we couldn't help but open a few of them.

The monsters were ridiculously difficult to kill. The three normal players remarked many times that they were no match for the enemies because they were too low-leveled. Even though we managed to defeat every creature we ran into, the fact that they weren't at good enough levels worried me.

The dungeon was no different. Wave after wave of monsters came at us in every room. At one point, Mistral had to switch over to using healing items because she couldn't use any more spells for a small amount of time.

Finally, we came to a doorway with purple mist hanging around. I copied Mistral and cast strengthening spells onto the party. Kite seemed hesitant to continue.

He looked at me, as if waiting for me to throw my hands up and say, "Kite, you were right. It was too dangerous for me to come along. I'm going to go back. Good luck!" However, that wasn't going to happen.

"I'm not leaving," I told him. "I'm not going to just abandon you guys because I'm scared."

Actually, "scared" was an understatement. I was horrified.

Once we all set foot through the darkness of the doorway, everything went black. Suddenly, whiteness surrounded me and I was reminded of that room with the canopy bed and teddy bears.

I heard the faint sound of static. It came in strong, but became quiet after a while to introduce the sound of waves.

"_Keiko? Keiko, can you hear me? I'm going to get you out, okay? I'm going to find you!" _

That was my sister's voice…

I tried to open my mouth to call out to Tsukiko, but I wasn't exactly sure where my mouth was. I couldn't see anything around me or feel anything on my body.

It was as if my consciousness had completely separated from my character's body, too. If I didn't have a body anymore, what was I? Just a floating non-existence?

There was a sudden, odd pressure around me and things felt like they were shaking. Images started to blur into my vision. Where was I?

A young girl stood above me, her large brown eyes staring down at me in shock. Somewhere behind me, I heard a monotonous beeping noise. I was in a hospital. My sister was here.

My head fell to the side where another body lay. A man seemed to be sleeping. His black hair was neatly cut to frame his face. His arms were laying palms-up on both sides of his body and an EKG machine was hooked into his left arm. I tried to focus on the medical clipboard hanging from the side of his bed.

_Hatsu Satoshi_

_Age: 18_

_Comatose_

Beside him, a girl who looked a year younger than me with the same color hair sat on a chair, watching me with terrified eyes.

My head was throbbing and my vision was fading again. I wanted to lie and say it was because I was crying (I wasn't entirely sure that I was), but I knew that wasn't it. My body felt heavy and my eyelids drooped.

"_KEIKO! YOU, GET A DAMN NURSE!"_

_Tsuki, watch your language._

There was a flash of green light and I was back with Kite, BlackRose, and Mistral. My legs were shaking as I glanced down at my feet. I was Rin again.

"Hey!" Mistral called, waving her hands around toward me. "Are you okay?"

I felt lightheaded as I glanced up at her face. "Uh-huh," I mumbled, turning away to look at the new area we were in. I knew this place all too well. It was the exact same place where I'd been Data Drained.

A floating white light caught our attention. An overwhelmed gasp came from Kite's mouth as he looked at her face.

"Aura," he whispered, addressing the girl who was staring at us.

A soft, but alarmed, smile touched her face. "I see…you received my message," she whispered. Although she was quiet, her voice faintly echoed around us. "However…it is too late."

"Wait!" Kite yelled, raising a hand toward her. "There's something I have to ask you!"

My stomach lurched when the red wand appeared behind Aura. That damned thing had etched itself into my mind perfectly. The way the bottom ended in a dangerous point. The eerie circular head that, in my mind, resembled a cross.

A cross.

I had taken a religious studies class two years ago. In Christianity beliefs, Jesus Christ had carried a cross many miles only to be crucified on it.

Orca had been crucified when he was Data Drained. Could this be somehow linked to those beliefs? Was this monster, which was now carrying a cross, portrayed as Jesus Christ, who judges sinners and ultimately delivers punishment?

If that were true, what had Orca done to deserve that? What did Balmung and I do? Where was Aura in the wrong here?

_"Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni?"_

_"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"_

A data surge formed in front of Aura. Slowly, the monster floated out from it, raising an arm toward her. A bracelet identical to Kite's flashed onto it's wrist.

I wanted to scream for everything to stop, but I felt as if I didn't have the energy to even force a sound from my mouth. Everything fell into a slow-motion state as the monster performed a Data Drain attack on her, leaving her only in the form of a small red ball.

Again, it focused on another attack. It pushed it's hands together, forming another ball of light. When it was shot out at the red ball, Aura's cries struck our ears painfully as the ball split into three parts and shot off in different directions.

The monster grabbed the wand and turned toward us. As I looked upon it's face, a name came into my head.

_Skeith._

Just as our weapons appeared in our hands, Kite yelled, "Its coming!"

I didn't even realize everyone had moved until I was pushed to the side by Mistral. "GO!" she screamed, making me run away from the violence. "We need to stay back so we can heal them!"

My eyes were glued on Skeith, Kite, and BlackRose. The speed at which Skeith moved was unbelievable. I didn't know how the other two kept up with it.

They spent a lot of their time chasing the monster around, but when it suddenly stopped and turned around, the two had no time to run away. Skeith brought the wand up with both hands and slammed it down into the earth, creating a shockwave that sent the two flying back.

The faint beeping noise told me to heal them and do it quick.

"Ol Repth!" Mistral and I shouted simultaneously. We exhaled in relief when the beeping subsided.

The battle continued on for what felt like hours. Mistral had used so many items to recover her Spell Points that I'd eventually lost count. I, on the other hand, was physically exhausted.

My lungs burned painfully as I tried to breathe. I was tired of running so much to avoid getting in the way of Skeith's attacks. My legs felt incredibly heavy and I could tell they were on the verge of deciding to just quit on me when I needed them the most.

"BlackRose!" Kite shouted, watching our partner float up in front of the wand.

"AKIRA!" I screamed. My body filled with a strange sort of adrenaline and I took off after Skeith. I knew I wasn't doing hardly any damage as I slammed my staff against it's leg, but I didn't care. I had to do something, or else she would end up like-

Thud.

Her motionless body hit the ground hard. I stopped breathing completely, listening to the beeping. I couldn't tell if it was because her health was low or if it was the sound of an EKG machine.

_No, no, no. Get up, Akira. Get up._

As much as I pleaded inside my head, she didn't listen. BlackRose continued to lay face-down on the ground until three different colored lights fell on her. Mistral was using items and healing spells to recover her.

"RIN, MOVE!"

"Wha-"

I felt like I had been punched in the nose, but the pain filled my entire body. My head cracked against the hard ground and my body rolled over small pebbles until I skidded to a stop. Everyone's voices sounded very far away. I couldn't see anything. The only color that was exposed to me was a dull crimson color.

"Do something!" BlackRose yelled. Her voice sounded deep and drawled.

"Ol Repth!" The same with Mistral's voice.

Green replaced the red color and the pain in my body disappeared. I sat up, holding onto my staff for dear life, only to see Kite chasing after Skeith.

I looked up at BlackRose and pointed to him. "What are you doing?" I asked her. "Get over there and help him!"

"Right!"

However, just as BlackRose returned to Kite, the sound of shattering glass was heard. The words "PROTECT BREAK OK" flashed above Skeith's head and Kite's bracelet began glowing.

"I've got it!" Kite shouted, swinging his wrist around his body to shoot a data stream toward Skeith.

The ground shook violently and Skeith started to glow. After a moment of deep groaning, it transformed into a group of rocks.

_That's Skeith's true form? Rocks? What kind of screwed up game is this?_

"I need one of you to attack with magic!" Kite told Mistral and me.

"I have a lot of scrolls saved up, plus the spells I already know," Mistral said, her eyes following the rocks as they floated away from Kite and BlackRose. "You keep healing!"

Only about five minutes later, the four of us figured out that this new form of Skeith had the very annoying ability to heal itself. It didn't seem to discourage Kite, however. He just went at Skeith even harder than before.

"Got it!" Kite finally yelled.

The rock formation stopped moving and began to crack into smaller pieces. Once they hit the ground, they dissolved into a sickening type of liquid. While Mistral danced around the area happily, the liquid started to bubble and expand until strange-looking trees shot out from it. She screamed when a line of trees cut off her path.

"What the hell?" she shrieked discontentedly.

"Look," Kite whispered, looking up at the dark sky. Mistral and I both followed his movements. BlackRose did, too, after a short pause.

A creature larger than Skeith hovered a couple hundred feet above us. Pale blue roots sprouted out from it, entangling themselves in each other. Right in the middle, where a heart would have been, was a red pulsating core. Was _that_ the heart?

"What is tha-" I tried to ask about it, but the creature opened it's huge mouth, showing off a set of jagged teeth, and roared in our direction, sending us flying back.

The four of us hit the ground hard and I heard three different types of computer chairs smacking against floors. I rolled my head to the side, trying my hardest to scream.

All I could see was a woman's face looking down at me. She had blonde hair, rather large breasts, and an odd pair of goggles on her eyes. In her hand, she held a staff that didn't look as if it belonged in The World.

A reassuring smirk formed on her face. "I believe this is the first of many."


	10. Almost

There was a soft heartbeat echoing in my ears. The rhythm, however, wasn't that of a natural heartbeat. It seemed to fit into a song, one I've never heard before. But still, it was familiar.

"_Shine, bright morning light. Now in the air, the spring is calling…"_

I knew that voice! Her image flashed in the blackness of the backside of my eyelids. Her white hair, her colorless skin, the dress she wore. That small, fragile voice could've only belonged to-

"Rin?"

A warm hand was placed on my forehead. I could feel the cold sweat squish between my skin and the unknown. Now conscious of my own body, I began to feel the soreness of every inch of it. Even my neck shot up in pain when I tried to turn it as I attempted to blink away the blurry film on my eyes.

Grey eyes peered down at me. They reminded me of Tsukiko's when I saw her that first day at the airport. Terrified, worried, uncertain. But underneath all that, there was something my sister didn't have: relief.

I tried to sit up, but Balmung placed his palm on my chest, pushing me back down. "Don't," he told me. "I'm anxious that any type of movement will knock you unconscious again."

My eyes searched around at my surroundings. The Gothic ceiling and the orange light shining in gave away the fact that I was in the cathedral. Turning my head, I saw that I was lying on one of the pews.

_How long have I been here?_

As if reading my mind, Balmung, who was standing in front of me, said, "I found you here a few hours ago. You weren't breathing, so I suspected you were dead, but then you started to hum. I'm not certain what happened, but I sensed something was different. What did your party do? Did you go wandering in places you shouldn't have?"

He continued to bombard me with questions I didn't feel like answering. I was just too tired, oddly enough. I had probably just slept a week of my life away, which left me with my own questions.

I thought back to the battle with Skeith, frowning at the fragments of my memory that seemed to be missing. It had turned into a rock-creature, then dissolved into the ground. There were trees. Then a beating heart in the dark sky. And a woman.

Balmung's exasperated sigh brought my attention back to him. He could've been talking through my thoughts, but I wasn't entirely sure. He only stared at me but didn't seem to be expecting an answer.

"Are you able to speak?"

"Of course," I replied, my voice coming out as only a whisper. Ignoring his earlier comment, I pushed my body up from the relaxed position and sat up straight. "I just feel exhausted."

He took a close seat next to me, as if waiting for me to crumble into pieces at any second. "What happened?"

So I told him everything I remembered. How long the battle seemed to last, the odd transformations, even about the woman who looked down upon me. Questions about her come to my mind, too.

"A woman?" Balmung repeated, leaning back in the pew. "One who wasn't included in your party?"

I nodded. "She had blonde hair and a weird visor covering her eyes. I think she was a Wavemaster; she had an unnatural-looking staff."

His mouth formed into a hard line and I started to wonder if I'd said something wrong. "Rin," he muttered, looking into my eyes like he was about to tell me my pet was just hit on the street, "stay away from her. She's a hacker and if I'm right, she's aiming to damage your character."

_So, he knows her…How, though?_

Shaking my head, I struggled and took several seconds to stand on my feet. As much as I didn't want to leave Balmung, I had to find Kite, BlackRose, and Mistral to be sure they were okay.

"I'll see you later," I told him in a rush. Knowing he would protest my exit, I hurried to Mac Anu, praying he wouldn't follow me. A confrontation between him and my friends was the very last thing I needed at that point.

A quick search of the crowded place showed no signs of the trio, so I expanded to Dun Loireag, finding myself staring into the chest of BlackRose. Two pairs of eyes (the other belonging to Kite) peered at me curiously for a moment before they both began talking at once.

"Rin! You're okay! What happened-"

"Are you hurt? What did you see? What happened-"

I threw up my hands, hoping it was sign enough for them to stop talking. Luckily, it was, after a few moments. "Guys, I'm fine. Are _you_? Where's Mistral?"

"We're fine," BlackRose replied. "We both fell unconscious after the fight with…it, but only for a few minutes. It took all night for the servers to come back up."

Nodding in confirmation, Kite added, "Mistral is okay. She sent us both messages saying she wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be online for a few days."

A warm feeling swirled in my stomach. I wasn't sure what it was, that feeling that forced tears to my eyes and a stupid-looking smile to spread across my face, but I could only guess it was some kind of intense relief, like the entire world had been lifted from my shoulders.

In a way, that was true. Even though Balmung and I were still stuck here, everyone was okay. Nobody else had fallen into a coma that I knew of, I wasn't dead, and Kite and BlackRose were obviously still ready to go searching through areas for more clues.

"Hey, where are you guys getting ready to go?" I questioned, running my palms across my eyes. They threw each other an odd look and I knew the argument of telling me to stay here where it was safe was coming.

"We're going back to see if Skeith is still there," Kite answered.

"Nothing has changed, so it must still be alive."

"Well, I'm going!" I declared before they tell me to stay. I peered over Kite's shoulder to see that he had already placed the keywords in. Guessing BlackRose was already in the party, I grabbed onto her hand and looked at Kite in anticipation.

He sighed and shook his head, but gave me a small smile anyway.

:-:-:-:

"You're right," I mumbled. "Nothing has changed."

The area looked the same as it did when we came the first time. The dark sky still loomed over us dangerously, lines of data stream fluttered through the air, and digital crickets called from unknown places around us. The only thing that truly was different was Kite's bracelet. It wasn't glowing.

The field and dungeon were void of any monsters, too. We took advantage of this abnormality by going into every room and opening the treasure chests, obtaining useful items without having to deal with any danger.

Nobody spoke until Kite finally broke. He stopped in the middle of a long hallway and waited for BlackRose and me to turn around. When we finally did, he rubbed his arm nervously, looking from her to me then back to her.

"Aren't you guys…you know, scared?" he asked in a fragile voice.

"Me? Scared?" BlackRose said confidently. "No way!"

I narrowed my eyes at her, wondering why she was acting so tough. "How can you say that?"

After a moment, her shoulders slumped and she let out a defeated sigh. "Okay, fine. Of course I'm scared. I'm terrified, actually. I mean, we're just a bunch of newbies trying to figure all this stuff out. Don't you think this is all a little too advanced for us?"

Kite took a step toward her and nodded, placing a hand on her shoulder. "This is too advanced for anyone, even if they had been playing this game all their lives. But we're the ones who decided to help everyone and there really isn't any turning back now."

"Besides," I added, watching their eyes fall on me, "Kite has the bracelet. Unless there are other players with that, nobody has the ability to help the coma victims."

She nodded and we continued in the empty dungeon. At that moment, I was sure BlackRose realized there was no running away from anything. I think I had finally come to realize that, too.

Although I didn't want to accept it, but for the time being, The World was my home. As much as I wanted to just fall asleep and wake back up in my bed, I knew I would only wake back up in the same spot: a code-ridden artificial surface.

But I don't think that was entirely true. If the surroundings were made up of nothing but data, then that meant the characters were too. I reached over my stomach to give myself a quick, stinging pinch. I was a real person and I sure as heck wasn't made up of 1's and 0's. So did that mean my environment was somehow alive, too?

A loud scream yanked me from my thoughts. I whipped my head to the side to see BlackRose crouched with her sword ready for attack, staring at the wall.

"What, what?" she yelled at Kite, who was facing the same wall. He didn't seem as tensed as she did, but when he cracked a small smile, her weapon's tip hit the floor with an echoed metallic noise.

"Sorry," he muttered. "Its just that I thought the design on that wall moved. I guess my eyes were just messing with me." A soft laugh came from his digital mouth.

That noise would have made me feel better about the whole situation if BlackRose hadn't attached her sword to her back, placed her hands on her hips, and said, "Don't laugh about it! You scared the hell out of me!"

"Excuse me," Kite replied sarcastically. "Weren't _you_ the one who freaked out about the goblin back in the cathedral, then laughed like it was no big deal?"

I stood off awkwardly to the side, being sure my back was against a wall. The last thing I wanted was to turn myself away from a long, dark corridor. Violent surprises were something I really didn't want to deal with at the moment.

"I want to ask you something," Kite suddenly said, his tone serious. It seemed that I'd missed out of part of their bickering.

"Yeah?" BlackRose urged.

"Well, I'm here to save Orca. Rin is here for obvious reasons. But why are _you_ here?"

My eyes flashed to meet BlackRose's. She never truly told us why she was with us, now that Kite brought it up. I never really thought enough about it to ask her. Everyone had their own reasons, after all.

"I, uh…I'm here because-"

An echo of footsteps halted the words coming from her mouth. Turning slowly, the three of us rested our eyes upon a figure I'd just been with not too long ago.

Balmung advanced toward us slowly, glaring at us with a pompous look about him. How could we have missed him coming into the dungeon?

"I come to find the cause of the problems, and again, I find you three," he said flatly. "Why are you here?"

My mouth dropped open. He was blaming _us? _Why did he pull this attitude whenever I was with Kite and BlackRose? If I were alone with him, he wouldn't be acting this way.

"I already told you the other day," Kite replied, standing his guard.

Confusion hit me hard. Balmung and Kite had talked? Where was I when this happened? I thought Balmung and I had always been together if I wasn't with the other two.

"If Kite told you, then what's the problem?" BlackRose demanded, placing her hands on her hips.

"You need to face the facts. When you three are involved, things only get worse."

Without another word, he continued walking past us. While BlackRose muttered to our male friend about how much of a jackass Balmung was, I excused myself and chased through the doorway after him.

"What the hell was that all about, Balmung?" I hissed, running in front of him so he had no choice but to stop.

He glared down at me with a look I hadn't seen since that day in the cathedral. Silence fell over us for the longest time until he just shook his head and tried to walk past me. I hurried to grab onto his wrist, but that only caused me to be pushed against a wall.

"Listen," he growled, his face only inches from mine. I stared at his chest, scared out of my mind. "Nothing changed after you defeated that monster. We're still stuck here and from what I see, things have only gotten worse. You don't care that we're here. All you care about is being in their party."

"That's not true!" I shouted, tilting my head up to look him in the eyes. "That's the only reason why I team up with them: is because I want to get out of this game!"

"I'm sure, Rin," he replied sarcastically, moving away from me as if he were about to walk away again.

"Why do you act this way? I don't get it. When its just us, you're perfectly fine, but when they come along, you flip arou-"

I forced my eyes shut when he lunged at me. At first, I felt my feet go numb, then my legs, and finally the rest of my body, except my lips. My eyes fluttered open, trying to focus on the blur in front of me.

Balmung's lips were touching mine, but not enough to be a kiss. He stopped himself 95% of the way in, leaving both of us trembling.

"I…," he whispered slowly. My legs nearly gave out at the feel of his breath against me.

There was no ending to that start. He suddenly warped out, leaving me alone in an empty corridor. Slowly, I slid down until my butt hit the hard floor.

I couldn't hold the tears back.


	11. Bruises

The cathedral was empty as I pushed open the doors. The only thing that stood to meet me was the statue of Aura. She seemed to be the only one who was always here.

What else was I expecting?

I advanced toward her, pushing my palms against the cold fenced barrier that separated us. I stared into her stone face, wondering just what exactly she had seen.

Maybe, just maybe, there had been others like myself. Others who were trapped in this game, not knowing where to turn next and just hoping and praying that one day, they'll be able to return to the real world. But maybe there could have been others who enjoyed The World more, loved it more, than their true lives?

"How sad," I whispered to myself.

How sad that must be to hate your life so much that you have to escape it with a game, with artificial people, with an entirely different "you."

How sad.

I thought of my sister. She was doing just that: escaping everything with this game. How strange it must be to her (or unfair, I might think) that her own flesh and blood, the person who was so completely against video games of any sort, was the one who was trapped in the place she considers hers?

Poor Tsukiko. How terrible was her life with Mom? Was she picked on at school? Nobody had the right to pick on her, if that happened. Nobody.

I wondered how many hours of her life she wasted in this fake world. Who had she met that made it so amazing? Who were the ones to help her through her troubles without even meeting her face-to-face? I would like to meet those people.

My poor sister. How sad.

"Why are you here?"

I turned to face the voice who directed the question toward me. Balmung stood in the doorway, the outside sunset making his body look as if it were on fire. Who was he to ask such a thing?

My mouth opened to reply to him, but only soft struggled whimpers came from it. I tried pushing the words out that no, don't you dare ask me that, this is mine just as much as it is yours, but that only caused intense pain in my stomach and throat.

"Answer me, _damn you_," his velvet voice demanded as he began toward me. I backed up only a tiny bit before I hit the barrier. A sword was drawn and swung at me, but I ducked just in time.

_What is going on? What the _hell _is going on?_

I found the biggest opening, just a small part between his left leg and the barrier and pushed myself through. My legs couldn't move fast enough as I headed toward the door. Within just a few seconds, Balmung was right in front of me, glaring down at me.

"You don't deserve to be here," he told me in a deadpan voice. "You don't deserve any of The World."

_Leave me alone…Balmung, just leave me alone._

I pushed against his chest, watching with an evanescent sense of delight as he toppled backward into one of the pews. Wasting no time, I turned around the other way to run, but he was there. It was as if I hadn't pushed him in the first place.

_Warp out…warp out…dammit! _

It didn't work. As I stared into those bloodcurdling eyes and repeated those words in my head, my body started to shake with words that wouldn't leave my mouth. The fear was pushing them back down into my throat.

"Don't shed your pathetic tears here, you bitch," Balmung spat out, lifting a finger to wipe at the tears that had spilled over long ago.

I heard the echo of the back of his hand collide with my cheek. Everything went numb as I tumbled to the ground. My blurred eyes settled on Aura, who was no longer a statue, but a picture of the real thing.

Her blue eyes locked with mine and her head tilted to the side. Her soft-looking skin was bruised with where the chains were wrapped so tightly around her.

Her feet moved toward me. The tender sound of her bare skin smacking against the glossy floor synced with the rhythm of my heartbeat in my ears. She knelt down, looking with utter concern at my face. The blood running from my nose went straight toward her. She didn't acknowledge it when the liquid stained her skin, squished between her tiny toes.

"How sad," she muttered, touching my cheek. Her palm was warm. So warm, that I ignored my urged to hold onto it for dear life.

A foot, one not belonging to a young girl, kicked me over onto my back. I gazed up in defeat at Balmung, whose eyes had changed completely.

There were no eyeballs. They had transformed into empty black caves from which a red substance spilled over from.

"See, Rin?" he asked. His voice was no longer his. It was something much deeper with a grisly edge to it. "We are the same, from the skin we cut to the blood we bleed."

_What are you…talking about?_

"Knight," Aura addressed him, tilting her eyes up to his. She stood and moved to his side, grabbing onto his hand. "Put her out of pain."

With his free hand, Balmung lifted his blade and pointed the tip toward me. I couldn't breathe through the blood that was now coming from my mouth.

"I will fix you," Aura told me.

The blade's tip seemed to sparkle as it was raised just a few inches higher. Balmung smiled, a smile flashing eerie jagged teeth, and plunged it downward.

_"NO!"_


	12. Dark And Light

"NO!"

I shot up, head swimming and palms drenched in sweat. My breath caught in my chest and I wiped at the tears welling up in my eyes with shaking hands.

_It was a dream…Just a dream._

Once my vision cleared entirely, I glanced around. There was nothing, absolutely nothing. No walls, floors, or a ceiling. Just white, reminding me of a room we'd encountered before.

_How in the world did I get here?_

I cupped my hands around my mouth and called out, "Hello?" There was no answer or even an echo.

Wrapping my arms around myself, I began to walk. I hated this place, wherever this place was. It made me feel small and invisible, like I'd felt before in the replica of the place.

A metallic sound of someone warping in forced me to whip my body around. BlackRose stood there, looking just as confused and lost as I felt. Without hesitation, I rushed to her side.

"What's going on?" I asked. "What is this place?"

"I don't know," she answered softly, gazing around at the missing environment. "I had gotten an email saying to come to this area."

"I just woke up here."

"What are you guys doing here?" a voice asked from behind us. We turned to see Kite, who had obviously gotten the same email.

After explaining the situations to him, the three of us began to wander off in the same direction, keeping as close as possible. I'm not sure how long time had passed, but we quickly found out that going back to town wasn't a possibility. Someone wanted us stuck here.

A high-pitched screeching noise surrounded us. My first reaction was to cover my ears and close my eyes as tightly as possible. It was the same noise Skeith had made when it made itself known to us.

Data streams shot across the area above us, creating a plethora of digital cubes. From the cubes, human figures formed. They were the NPC merchants that were placed in the towns to sell and buy items. Only this time, they weren't NPCs.

"I am Lios," the only merchant dressed in green informed us. "I am a system administrator within The World."

Another spoke, "You have ignored our warnings."

And another, "You have gone too far."

_Warnings?_

As Lios floated down to our level, I looked between my two friends in a panic. I wanted to know just what kind of warnings they were talking about and why I wasn't told about them earlier.

"If the three of you hadn't interfered, things would not have gotten out of control!" Lios barked, glaring each of us down one at a time. He had a gruff voice, like that of a heavy smoker.

BlackRose and I both took a small step back, intimidated by the amount of authority he held himself with. However, Kite refused to follow us. He returned the glare and lifted an accusing finger to him.

"Us? What about _you_?" he shouted. "Not only did you _not_ do anything about the coma victims, but you also tried to cover it up!"

Lios puffed out his chest and crossed his arms over them. "Viruses were spread by hackers. They caused the problem. If you're going to blame anyone, blame them."

"How will blaming the hackers bring my friends back?"

A quick breath came from BlackRose, then a sound of sniffling. She was crying in the real world and something inside her had just snapped.

"Fumikazu is in the hospital!" she screamed, balling her hands into tight fists at her sides. "If blaming the hackers will bring him back, then fine! I'll blame the hackers until I'm blue in the fucking face!" Her voice rose higher and began to shake. "Bring him back! _Do something!_"

She quieted herself, bringing her cries to faint jumpy inhales. I placed my hand on her shoulder, whispering her name, her _real_ name, but she only stared Lios down, waiting for a miracle to happen.

"We are investigating the connection between the coma victims and the slow destruction of The World," he replied in monotone. "We are not sitting around twiddling our thumbs, I assure you." His character turned to face me. "Your character has been under investigation for the past month."

_A month? Has it really been that long?_

"Under what circumstances?" I demanded, moving away from BlackRose to give Kite room to comfort her himself. "What have I done wrong?"

Lios floated down to my level, his eyes meeting mine with a dangerous spark in them. It was then that I realized just how short I'd made my character. Lios was a stubby man with what looked like a beer belly, and even then I was at least a few inches shorter than him.

"Your character violates the set code we've established here within The World. In other words, you are handling a hacked character."

My mouth formed into a heavy frown. My character, hacked? There was no way that was possible. I hadn't done anything to it.

"Speaking of violating characters," Lios continued, turning away from me and toward Kite. "To prevent more deterioration, you must delete your characters."

"What?" Kite snapped. "Why?"

"I need to repeat myself, don't I? Your character is also hacked. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about."

_This is stupid! How is any of this our fault? It was Skeith's fault!_

Lios raised his hand toward the two of us. "I will now delete you."

A heavy breath filled my lungs and I covered my eyes with my palms, pressing close against Kite's cold body. My palms instantly began to sweat and my legs trembled violently.

"LIOS!" a feminine voice rang out around us.

Uncovering my eyes, I saw Lios' hand drop to his side and a familiar woman glide down to us from the empty space above. My mouth dropped open when I realized she was the woman who I'd seen after the fight with Skeith.

"Helba," Lios greeted her through gritted teeth.

"Are you insane or just completely stupid?" she barked at him, holding her staff firmly in her hand. It was such a strange staff.

He flinched back as if her words had literally slapped him across the face. "H-How dare you!"

A devious smirk spread on her face. "Don't talk condescending to me, especially when you know you are not in control here, little man."

"What in the world are you talking about?"

Helba turned to Kite and me, tilting her head slightly to the side. Goosebumps ran across my arms and legs and I tried my hardest not to shiver. She had such an odd look about her and I wasn't sure how I felt about it.

"I wonder," she muttered to Lios without looking at him, "what would happen if this boy Data Drained you? Or if this girl, who is such a threat to your precious company, would even _touch_ you?"

_I'm a threat?_

"I wouldn't even think of that!" Kite defended, taking a step away from the powerful party.

Helba nodded to him. "Because you aren't stupid, unlike some people." She again turned to Lios. "You don't understand how they work, and yet you want to delete them? Or is it even true that you really possess the power to do such a thing?"

Lios and all the other admin characters stared her down in silence. BlackRose's eyes flashed from Kite, to me, to Kite, to Helba, and then settled back on Lios. I bit down on my tongue, wishing someone would break the tension. Finally, someone did.

"The boy's character is so well protected that not even you 'powerful' administrators can hack him. And as long as this girl is with him, you cannot even touch her," Helba explained. "Don't you understand that with him, there is a hope of stopping all this chaos?"

"Um, can I put a word in?" Kite asked meekly, looking between the two. "I honestly don't care what happens to this character. I just want to help my friends and the other coma victims, but I'm not entirely sure how. Helba, Lios, what do I do?"

Helba let out a long and exhausted sigh. "That's not something we can tell you. I don't have the answer, and I'm positive this _idiot_," she jutted her chin toward Lios, "doesn't either. I can only give you information. You do know that the earlier version of The World was called Fragment, right? There's a rumor that Fragment was inspired by a poem by Emma Wielant called _The Epitaph of Twilight_. Perhaps it could lead to something."

Lios snorted and threw his head back. "That's a dead end."

She turned to him slowly, as if she were trying to intimidate him. That had happened from the second she joined our discussion. "Lios. That was the name given to you as a system administrator. Are you aware that name refers to Aperion, the King of Light mentioned in _The Epitaph_?"

"It does?"

"Deleting characters is not the only way to go about facing this problem. Instead of trying to cover everything up, why not watch this trio and see what they can uncover?"

Lios raised a finger to her and grimaced heavily. "I'm not taking orders from someone like you!"

"Orders? No, I'm only giving a mere suggestion. Besides, if something happens, won't it be you who will be held responsible?"

"I'll…think it over," Lios muttered under his breath.

"Oh, yes. Try thinking for a change. It may suit you."

With a glare and a quick huff, Lios and the other administrators warped out. Helba shook her head, her blonde hair swaying from side to side, and finally turned her attention back to us. Suddenly she didn't seem like the daunting woman who had just made someone as powerful (or was he truly as powerful as he made himself seem?) as Lios cower like a small puppy. She flashed us a small smile and bowed slightly to us.

"We'll be meeting again. Take care." And with that, she warped out just as the men had before her.

My two friends and I stood in silence. We occasionally glanced at each other in an awkward way, but it seemed none of us really knew what to say.

"Um, what was that all about, before Helba showed up?" Kite asked BlackRose, referring to her outburst about Fumikazu.

She flinched back and I chewed on the inside of my cheek. There was just so much stress, I wasn't sure what to do with myself.

"Well, uh…It was…" She shook her head. "Nothing. Forget it." Without another word, she, too, warped out.

Kite glanced over to me and shrugged. "I'll send her an email to make sure she's okay. I'll see you tomorrow, Rin."

:-:-:-:

Mac Anu was strangely lacking the usual number of people when I arrived. I wandered across the bridge and into the square area, listening to quiet conversations players were having. They talked about jobs and how much those jobs were hated, and one man couldn't figure out why his cat wasn't eating.

"Has your cat recently suffered a loss?" another player asked the cat owner. "I hear cats fall into a depression if a human they are emotionally attached to goes away for a long period of time."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes at that idiotic statement.

Minutes later, I found myself sitting on the edge of the stone walkway in front of the Magic Shop. I crossed my legs over each other, propped my chin up with my palm, and rested my elbow on my knee.

I hated times like this, when I was alone and had nobody to talk to. Now, without Balmung randomly showing up, that lonely feeling only intensified a thousand times over.

A bitter feeling hit me at the thought of him. I felt my face form into a hard frown and from my reflection in the water, it was easy to tell just how upset I was.

Balmung had made me feel like I was some kind of puppet the entire time since I started playing this game. Telling from his character here, I knew exactly what type of man he was in the real world. He was a man who used his charm to make girls weak at the knees, then once he got what he wanted from them, he left them in the same state I was. Alone, depressed, and regretting every second I spent with him.

"Stupid bastard," I whispered to myself.

"Keiko?"

My head shot up from watching my twin in the water. The sound of my true name brought my eyes to a female player. She had short, choppy green hair and bright red eyes. Her entire color scheme seemed to revolve around bright colors. Above her head, the name "Katashi" shown proudly.

"Who are you?" I demanded to know, raising myself to my feet.

She advanced toward me and once she was close enough, I had to tilt my head back only slightly to look at her face. Was every player taller than me?

"You are Keiko," she whispered.

"Who are you?" I repeated.

"Your sister."


	13. Addition

My sister?

I stared at this player, the one who called herself my sister, for ages. The player didn't look a thing like her real self, but that was the glory of avatars. However, her voice matched Tsukiko's perfectly.

"Tsukiko?" I whispered, taking an involuntary step away from her.

"How can you be here…and in a coma…Keiko, what did you do?" she whispered, her character's blank eyes watching me like some sort of caged animal.

Other players began to slow down their walking pace to watch the two of us. I figured they were waiting for a fight of some sort, so I did the only thing I could think of to get away from them all. I ran, with hopes that Tsukiko would follow.

She did.

"Will you stop running?" she yelled once I had backed myself into the alley.

I'd already stopped by the time she asked. I stood with my back facing her, trying to catch my breath and blink back the tears forming in my eyes. I wasn't tempted to cry out of sadness or fear.

Honestly, I was overjoyed. Finally, I had someone who I could call mine back. The entire time I had been stuck in the game, I felt as if nothing belonged solely to me. But now, I had my sister.

"Wh-Why are you crying?" Tsukiko asked as soon as I pressed my palms to my eyes and choked back a few sobs. It was painful for my throat and chest, but I was trying my absolute hardest not to break down in front of her.

I heard her character's footsteps walk toward me and palms were pressed against my cheek, forcing my head up to look at her. We stared each other down for a while, neither of us saying anything.

"You're _here_," I whispered, shaking her hands from me to grab her in a hug.

"I miss you," she replied quietly, as if trying to hide her words from me.

The following hours were spent in a catching up phase. We both sat against the wall, listening intently to each other. She told me how distraught my father was and how she had spent this entire time looking for me in the game because, oddly enough, she felt a connection to me while logged in.

"It was a feeling I didn't feel in the real world. I could stare at your real body for hours and feel as if you never existed, but the second I came here, I knew you were somewhere out there. I just wasn't sure where," she told me sincerely.

In return, I told her about everything I'd encountered; my new friends, all the enemies I'd fought, and of course, Balmung.

"Wait, you _kissed_ Balmung of the Azure Sky?" she asked disbelievingly.

"Not exactly." The topic felt terribly awkward, so I changed it as quickly as possible. "You know, I should introduce you to Kite, BlackRose, and Mistral. We're all trying to figure out what's wrong with this game."

Tsukiko, or Katashi, sat up quickly and faced me. "I want to help," she told me with no hesitation. "I want to help get you out of here. I feel kind of responsible anyway."

"How?"

"I made you play this game in the first place. I mean…I knew you didn't want to. You made it pretty obvious."

I frowned slowly. Back then when I was trying to avoid The World at all costs, I was also trying to be respectful to my sister by not coming off as rude. I guess it happened anyway. Or maybe I knew exactly how I came off, but brushed it off anyway.

"Its just that…I don't know," she continued, looking away from me. "I wanted _something_ we could bond over. Most people don't want to play in the beginning, but once they do, they're hooked."

I faked a small chuckle. "Well, I most definitely became hooked, didn't I?"

"Not the way I wanted. This shouldn't have happened to you."

I sighed. So much for trying to get rid of the tension.

"I'm sorry I made this happen to you, Keiko. I just wanted us to be like actual sisters so badly that I didn't even try to see the whole situation from your point of view."

I stared at her character for such a long time that she may have thought something was wrong with me. She just wanted us to be sisters, for me to see her as a sister, from the very start. And from the second I left the real world, she blamed herself entirely when in reality, none if it was her fault.

"Tsuki," I whispered, placing my hand on hers, "from the day you were born, we have been sisters. Nothing has or ever will change that and none of this is your fault."

"If you truly believe that, then let me help you."

And from there on, I guess I really had no choice but to let her.

:-:-:-:

We found the rest of my party wandering around the new town that had opened the day before: Cultural City Carmina Gadelica on the Lambda server. It was a beautiful city like the two before, but it was very unique.

The streets were in the shape of an _H_, leaving the Grunty Ranch and the corral on one side while the shops were on the other. The dark sky twinkled with digital stars and the water below reflected not only them, but also the lights of the city buildings far away. Colorful banners hung from the shops, giving away that the theme for the town was a festive one.

"Rin!" BlackRose called, waving a hand high over her head. She was standing near the stone railing with Kite, who was peering over into the water.

"Kite, BlackRose, this is Katashi, my sister," I introduced. "Katashi, these are my friends, Kite and BlackRose."

My teammates stared her down cautiously, glanced toward me, then back to her to give her friendly greetings. Katashi smiled nervously, inconspicuously slinking closer to me.

"She already knows everything," I blurted out, receiving sudden panicked stares.

"Everything?" Kite repeated.

"Yes, everything. About Skeith and Aura, your bracelet, and everything else that has been happening lately. She wants to help."

"I really do," she pitched in. "Its my fault that Ke- Rin, I mean, is stuck here."

As much as I wanted to object, I didn't. The more backbone my sister and I had for Kite to let her join, the better. Even if it meant using the guilt-game.

Kite and BlackRose fell silent, which meant they were communicating through the party chat. While I waited for an answer, I watched a strange ship float by in the water. Decorative lights and balloons cluttered the railings and NPCs laughed loudly from it.

"All right," Kite finally said. "You can help us, Katashi, but do you understand how dangerous this all is?"

"Of course I do," she answered quickly.

"We'll start here then. Lios sent BlackRose and me emails, but we haven't learned anything from any of the people here."

"We should ask a shopkeeper," BlackRose suggested.

Seeing as we all wanted to check out what sorts of new weapons this town provided, we chose that shopkeeper to talk to. Luckily, it seemed like we picked the right one.

"You're late!" the shopkeeper yelled in Lios' voice.

"Lios?"

"I have a new assignment for you," he continued, eyeing my sister strangely. "First, I want you to investigate the extent of the viral contamination on this server. Pay especially close attention to Protected Areas. We are still working on identifying the source of the problem, but we know about your irregular ability to break the protection, so use this."

"A Virus Core?" Kite asked in disbelief.

"But how did you-"

"Don't be surprised. I successfully extracted this from a Data Bug. The coordinates for the Protected Area should be posted on the BBS."

Within a second, we were greeted with the regular "hello" from the NPC shopkeeper. The tension completely disappeared with Lios' hasty exit.

"Well, I'll go check it. I'll be right back," BlackRose said just before logging out.

We waited for nearly half an hour before Kite decided it was getting very late, he had school in the morning, and his eyes were beginning to hurt. We said our goodbyes and watched him leave just like BlackRose.

"Oh," Katashi said suddenly. "I just got something from BlackRose."

There was the sound of clicking.

"She says her mom caught her online too late and she's going to bed. We'll meet tomorrow and head to the area."

I nodded slowly. "You should go too. I know its late there and you have school tomorrow too."

She glanced at me worriedly. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I've been here for quite some time," I replied with a smile. "I've learned how to deal on my own."

In a quick second, her character caught me in an awkward hug, which felt strange. She must've been pretty skilled with the controls to make herself do it. I hugged her back anyway.

"I'll be online as soon as I get home from school," she told me.

I didn't doubt that for a second.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeesh, it certainly has been a while since I last updated. So sorry about that! On the upside, though, I've finally graduated high school, which gives me more time to write! <strong>

**So expect more updates!**


	14. Meaningless

I spent the next few days with my sister, almost entirely forgetting about the fact that Kite had information of an area that needed investigation. I wanted to leave all the worries behind for just a short amount of time.

As we battled through different areas and dungeon, my sister and I caught up. While she told me about how her schooling is going, I told her about everything that had happened to me since being trapped in the game.

"I haven't really been focusing on my school work," she gloomily told me. "Since that incident, I've really just been playing The World and trying to find any clues that would help me find you."

I opened a treasure chest, obtaining another scroll. I wasn't surprised. It seemed that scrolls were an abundance in this game. I just wished I could stumble upon a rare weapon or something like that.

"Well, now that you've found me, you can go back to actually trying, right?" I asked, eyeing her seriously.

"I guess. The way I see it is that I can always repeat a grade, but this may be my only opportunity to help you."

I didn't have an opposing argument to that. After we had finally reached the Gott Statue and returned to town, we met up with Kite and BlackRose near the Chaos Gate. They both smiled at us, but quickly returned to straight faces.

"Mia, Elk, and I didn't find any leads at Dolorous, Evil-Eyed, Widow," Kite informed us. "Something is wrong with Mia, though."

I tried to remember who exactly Mia was. The cat character that Mistral was so excited about! Come to think of it, I hadn't seen any other cat-like character since I started the game. Maybe it was an event that allowed you to change races.

"Wow, her speech really is messed up," Katashi remarked, making me realize that Kite had sent her an example of it.

"I wonder if CC Corp. is trying to fix the Japanese dialogue system," BlackRose added. "But then again, why would Mia's speech be the only one affected? More importantly, did you see the keywords on the BBS?"

"I saw them," Katashi joined in. "Lambda: Nameless, Seeker's, Prairie?"

"Exactly. Are you coming with us?"

"If you'll have me."

The polite tone of my sister's voice took me aback for a moment. It somewhat reminded me of Balmung's, but the thought of him instantly made my stomach twist. I didn't want his image in my mind anymore. There were so many other things I needed to worry about.

Kite invited the two female players into his party and I held onto my sister's hand. Instead of giving me a strange look like she had done the first time we warped anywhere together, she ignored it and stared forward, watching for Kite to hack the area gate.

Once we arrived, Katashi looked around the area. I wasn't sure if the look on her face was a look of horror or a look of pure amazement. I think Kite and BlackRose were expecting her to return to town, leaving us because she changed her mind, finally realizing what she had just gotten herself into. However, she stayed.

"So, this is it, huh," she muttered to herself, watching a data stream float by.

"What do you mean?" BlackRose asked as we began walking toward the dungeon, keeping an eye out for any stray monsters or Magic Portals.

"This is a Protected Area, right?" she questioned Kite. "I've heard of these before, but never found one myself."

Kite glanced down at his wrist, then up at my sister. "You know about Protected Areas?"

"Yep. A friend of mine from school found one once. It took her to a weird screen, so she gave up on it. A week later, her account was suspended for no reason. She thinks it was because she found that area."

CC Corp. suspending people for stumbling upon their problems? That hardly seemed fair, but then again, if all CC Corp. employees were like Lios, I wouldn't expect anything more from that company. I was just thankful that because we traveled to these areas with Kite, we were safe from any kind of deletion or suspension.

The dungeon was only three levels deep, so we fought through it quickly. I was amazed at how swiftly my sister attacked the monsters. It was almost as if she was like me – stuck in her character's body, controlling every movement.

"This is it," BlackRose whispered as we arrived at the purple mist the surrounded the doorway.

I took a quick moment to cast strengthening spells on my friends while they added whatever spells they had. Still, I waited for Katashi to turn around and run. If another monster like Skeith were in the room before us, I wouldn't blame her. I wouldn't blame her if we encountered a strong monster, even. But she didn't.

"Are we ready?" she asked, taking a heavy breath.

We continued through the doorway to settle our eyes on a player standing in front of a Magic Portal. The character, who was a short Wavemaster like myself, paid no attention to us, although with a quick twitch of his body made it obvious that he knew we were behind him.

My heart felt as if it dropped to the floor when a Data Bug emerged from the Magic Portal. "Hey, get away from it!" I yelled to the Wavemaster.

"Sorry," he told the monster. "Did I wake you?"

"What the hell?" BlackRose muttered behind me as we ran to him.

I grabbed the Wavemaster's hand and dragged him away from the danger. As I let go, I was able to get a good look at him. Pieces of his body were missing, as if someone had taken strips straight out of him. He half-smiled at me and asked, "Are you End?"

"Rin!" Kite called, bringing my attention away from the broken player. I returned to my party, healing and casting my own spells on the scorpion-like Data Bug.

The entire time we were fighting, I kept an eye on the player. Instead of joining and helping us, he skipped around in circles, laughing and singing to himself.

"Keep your eyes on me, now we're on the edge of hell," I heard him sing, over and over again. It was almost as if he was stuck on a loop, but every time he sang it, his voice had a different tone.

"Now!" BlackRose called when Kite was finally able to Data Drain the monster.

The rest of the fight was over quickly. We defeated the monster within minutes, and as soon as we were finished, the odd player returned to us.

"Why did you get in the way?" he asked Kite angrily. "Are you Mr. In-The-Way?"

"Who are you?" Kite replied, taking notice to the player's missing graphics.

"I am, was, will be Sheraton, Mr. In-The-Way. How do you do? Do you have End?"

"What is End?" Katashi asked. "There's nothing in my inventory named that."

"I don't think it's an item," I answered, watching as Sheraton raised a finger to point at me.

"You give me End! You are End!"

And without another word, he warped out, leaving us all confused and thoroughly freaked out. I suddenly felt as if someone unknown was watching me from a corner of the room, so I didn't waste any time leaving the dungeon.

My party followed, each having their own questions that didn't have an answer.

"What was that?"

"What was wrong with his character?"

"What is End?"

We heard a faint "bing" sound and Kite looked up toward the dark sky. "Lios says to report to the weapon shop."

"A 'please' would be nice," BlackRose grumbled as we began walking.

I'm sure my sister had her own questions about what she had seen back in the dungeon, but she remained quiet. I was actually surprised at how well she was taking it all. If I had been in her place, I would've been too scared to fight the monster, or even go into the dungeon in the first place, from the look of the broken code in the area.

The more I thought about it, the more it made sense to me. My sister was terrified of almost everything in the real world, but in the game, she was braver than I was.

"Who is this?" Lios demanded to know when we arrived, jutting his chin toward Katashi.

"A teammate," Kite replied.

Lios fell silent, probably going through her character data to find any sort of abnormality – any reason to delete her.

"I don't know what you're looking for," Katashi told him, turning her gaze to a glare. "If you're going to suspend my account, you have no reason to."

"Hmph," Lios pouted. "What did you find?"

"The area was corrupted and we found a character being attacked by a Data Bug," Kite answered, then cut off shortly. "Wait, a character in a Protected Area?"

"Wandering AI," Lios replied. "That's all it was. They can get through Protected Areas. However, I wasn't expecting a Data Bug."

"Wandering AI?" my sister repeated.

"Artificial intelligence. Data that has no meaning, usually mistakes." I noticed Lios cast a quick glance at me, which took me back. Did he mean to say that I was meaningless data?

Faintly, we heard rapid keyboard clicking, background voices, and low grumbling. Then it became silent, and we just waited.

"We will perform an investigation. You will wait for your next instructions via e-mail," Lios ordered. Within a second, the NPC turned back to the friendly greeting, asking us if we wanted to buy or to sell.

Kite let out an exasperated sigh and by the sound of his voice, it was obvious how tired he was. "Guess I'll go wait for that e-mail. I'll see you all tomorrow."

We said our good-byes, in which BlackRose and Katashi decided to leave for the night, too. Quickly, I returned to Mac Anu, keeping myself to the back alley that nobody seemed to pay attention to.

My mind was in a frenzy. Everything seemed to be running okay, and maybe I would be home soon. But at the same time, I knew we were being used for Kite's bracelet. There was always the possibility that Lios' intentions weren't actually to fix this game and help the players that had fallen victim.

I only hoped that we weren't working toward our own demise without realizing it.


	15. End

I returned to one of the two places that Balmung always seemed to find me: the open area behind the Grunty Ranch in Dun Loireag. I'm not entirely sure how long I waited, but I felt it was necessary for not only my sanity, but for Sheraton, who I knew was still in that dungeon.

Like I knew he would, Balmung eventually strolled behind, catching my gaze. At first, we said nothing. How many days had it been since we talked? I couldn't remember.

"Rin," he finally said.

This was stupid. With a quick sigh, I grabbed his arm and began hauling him toward the Chaos Gate so we could warp to the Carmina Gadelica, then to Lambda: Dolorous, Evil-Eyed, Widow.

"I don't care if you're still mad at me…," I trailed on as the golden warp rings surrounded us. Even in the darkness, I could feel him half-heartedly trying to struggle against me. "…but I need to show you something, and I think we're the only ones who can help this guy."

"Will you at least inform me of what's going on?" he asked, watching me select the keywords. "Wait, this is the Protected Ar—"

We arrived within milliseconds. After taking a quick look around the corrupted area, Balmung turned to me, wrenching his arm from my grasp.

"Why are we here, Rin?!" he growled through his teeth.

"I'll show you, but you have to trust me."

We locked gazes, and I wasn't sure what he was thinking. I desperately wanted to know. Instead of asking, I forced a smile. If I was going to get him to follow me, I was going to have to bite my tongue.

"Trust me," I repeated. "We'll be okay. You're already fantastic in combat, and I've become better at healing and using different kinds of spells. We'll be okay."

"Okay," he finally said. Without another word, we started for the dungeon.

The journey started in complete silence, which made me feel uncomfortable. I knew Balmung and I weren't on the greatest terms with each other, but I wanted to believe that we were closer than this.

"You know," I started, trying to grab at a data stream, "I was going to get a job at a local restaurant right before this whole thing happened."

"They had hired you already?"

"Not really. I had an interview. Sometimes I think about whom the lucky waiter or waitress is that took my place. Did you have a job?"

"You're talking as if I died."

"Did you?"

"I did, I do."

As much as we tried to avoid Magic Portals, once we arrived to the dungeon, there was at least one in almost every room. We fought through them almost effortlessly.

"What did you do?" I asked once the first couple battles were over as I healed him.

"Why are you asking?"

The question set me off a little. I shrugged, trying to seem as if it didn't hurt that he was so defensive with me. "I'm curious. That's all."

Balmung stopped walking, which in turn made me stop too. "You want to know about me? Fine. I am an 18-year-old, single father to a two-year-old girl, working a part-time job at a grocery store and going to school at the same time."

My heart shattered. Nothing like I'd imagined him to be.

"Really?" I muttered, trying to process all of that information at once.

He shook his head. "No, but you would have believed me otherwise. So, tell me. Why even ask if you know I could very well continue with a lie like that, and you would have believed me nonetheless?"

I nodded to him and turned around, heading for the next room. "You know what? You don't have to come with me. Go ahead and return to town. I don't care."

"Rin."

The next room's Magic Portal contained only a treasure chest. I quickly opened it, obtaining yet another scroll, then continued on. The purple mist in front of the doorway told me Sheraton was waiting for me only a few feet away, so I hurried to him.

"Hello, are you End?" Sheraton asked, his back facing me.

"Do you remember me?" I asked, walking to the front of him. "We met yesterday."

"I want End. Someone give me End!"

A figure formed from the dark doorway. Balmung had followed me. He was already here, no use in leaving. Besides, I'd reached my goal, so I waved him over.

"I want End!" Sheraton repeated.

"End?" Balmung asked me.

"I thought about it for a long time. Lios told me he's a wandering AI and that he's meaningless data. What does meaningless data classify as the end?"

"I don't know."

"An answer." I looked at Sheraton. His torn face bobbed back and forth slowly. "What you're looking for is us."

Sheraton's hands reached out and grabbed ours. Half a smile formed on his face and many beautiful light particles surrounded him. We watched them float up, and I swore I heard a distant, "Thank you."

Balmung stared down at me. "I don't understand."

"Think about it. Say someone told you that you're meaningless data. That there is nothing to you except a bunch of 1's and 0's. They told you that for so long, that it became part of your thought code. Wouldn't you constantly search for something to prove the person who told you that wrong?"

"I suppose."

"That's what we are to him. Even though there isn't a player behind that character, he was still searching for something that made him more than just a character. We are real people behind these characters. We prove his thought code wrong."

We decided to return to town before anything strange showed up. Carmina Gadelica was practically empty. It was probably late at night in the real world. Most players were kids and teenagers who had bedtimes.

"When you get that waitressing job," Balmung told me as we leaned over the short wall that separated the walking space from the water below, "just remember hold a tray with one hand underneath and one on the edge. You'll have more support that way."

"And how would you know this?" I asked, shooting him a quick smile.

"I've had a few jobs before. I was a waiter for about a year."

"Did you like it?"

He shrugged and turned his body, crossing his arms over his chest. "At times, I did. Other times, I wanted to dump water on some of my customers."

I chuckled, then somberly brought my attention back to the dark water. I could feel Balmung's eyes on me, studying my expression.

My mind wandered to repeated topics. How long would we be stuck here? What's going on in the real world? Would we ever get out?

Oddly enough, when I thought about returning to the real world, I became very anxious. The World had, somehow, become a home for me. An unwanted home, but a home nonetheless. If my assumptions were true that we would be here for a much longer period of time, then it would grow on me even more, making returning and adjusting to my normal life very difficult.

"What's on your mind?" Balmung finally asked.

"Nothing really," I lied.

As if reading my mind, he told me, "We'll get back to our real bodies soon. I'm sure everyone is doing everything they can to make sure of it."

And even though he tried with the utmost sincerity to make me believe that, I just couldn't imagine Lios and his stupid corporation trying to help anyone but themselves.


	16. Mirage of Deceit

"Lios said to give this to you," BlackRose told Kite as we gathered in front of the Chaos Gate in Carmina Gadelica. "He also said you know the keywords we need."

I stood leaning against the wall, wondering why I hadn't seen my sister in a few days. I desperately hoped she was taking some time off from the game to study for school, but I knew that wasn't the case.

"I do," Kite replied. As they formed a party, BlackRose mentioned me over with her hand. I grabbed onto her shoulder, waiting for our Twin Blade to execute our next move.

"What're you waiting for?" she asked after a few silent moments.

Kite locked gazes with me. "I just have a really bad feeling right now."

"Oh, don't even try to tell me that I can't come along with you guys because its too dangerous," I told him, glaring. It was hard to make myself seem large and stubborn when the person I was talking to was a tiny bit taller than me.

"That's not what I'm saying at all. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring another Wavemaster."

"Mistral?"

"She isn't online. Elk is, though."

"Well, what're you waiting for? Invite him!" BlackRose urged. Within a few minutes, a short Wavemaster in blue and grey clothing appeared at the Chaos Gate.

This was my very first time meeting Elk. His color scheme was very gloomy and reminded me of the ocean on a very rainy day. The only thing that wasn't colored cheerlessly was his eyes. The bright crimson color struck me off-guard and I couldn't help but stare at them.

"Hello," he finally said in a weak and fragile voice.

"Is something wrong?" Kite asked.

"I can't find Mia. Can we go look for her?"

"We need to go somewhere else now. Maybe after?"

"Sure."

"Elk, this is Rin. Rin, this is my friend Elk," Kite introduced. I smiled at Elk, who bowed very slightly to me.

"Its nice to finally meet you," I told him. He seemed to back away from my words, as if he was afraid.

"Yeah."

Sensing the awkwardness in the air, Kite turned back to the Chaos Gate and hurried to select the keywords. The area we warped to was broken, but more than usual. Every two seconds, I heard the sound of harsh static and felt the ground shake. Data streams littered the air and when they intersected, they grew into a larger stream. The sky hardly looked like a sky at all. Red fissures of broken code leaked down from above, disappearing in different directions.

"There's something here," BlackRose whispered.

"What is it?" Elk asked, moving slowly behind Kite.

"They're becoming more broken as we go on," I added in regards to all of the corrupted areas we've been to before.

We hurried to the dungeon, which was the carcass of a dragon. It's mouth was held open by two extensive sticks. The interior of the dungeon, a fleshy corridor with pulsing arteries sticking out from every which way, was as bad, if not worse, than the field. Corrupted code cut across the walls, floor, and ceiling like gashes.

Elk turned to Kite after giving the room a glance over. "This is almost like…"

"Yeah…"

I had no idea what they were talking about, but I decided it best not to ask anything when Kite started for the next room.

As soon as we walked through the doorway, an intense feeling of nausea hit my gut as the dreaded screeching static noise surrounded us. Beside me, I heard BlackRose yelp. A circular data stream opened and from it, a strange and foreign monster floated out. I wasn't entirely sure what it looked like. It was just a large, flat puzzle-piece. But with the holes in it's body, it could've been mistaken for a mask.

"What the hell is that?!" BlackRose yelled.

Kite wasted no time running toward it with a quick attack called Staccato under his sleeve. However, as many times as his blades went at the monster, the word "miss" kept appearing. Flashbacks of the day I was Data Drained popped into my mind.

"Innis," Elk whispered.

"What?"

"This monster's name is Innis."

I remembered the statue in the cathedral. Innis was the second name on the pedestal.

"Kite!" I yelled, causing him to ignore Innis for a short moment to look at me. "This thing is the same kind of monster as Skeith!"

Realizing that it had to be finished quickly, he turned back toward Innis, only to find that it had disappeared. "Where did it go?" he asked himself.

"Maybe it went further into the dungeon!" BlackRose suggested, making a run for the next room.

We hurried to fight our way through the monsters that emerged from the Magic Portals. Elk and I had adapted almost the same kind of system that Mistral and I had. Instead of attacking only and relying on me to heal, Elk did both. He was obviously a very skilled Wavemaster. I began to wonder what he did in real life. Maybe a game developer?

Like before, we encountered Innis in the first room of the next floor down. This time, BlackRose took her turn at it, screaming over and over again, "Are you a shadow too!? Or are you the real thing?!"

Mid-attack, Innis' body warped and disappeared. She growled and banged her sword on the ground in frustration.

"It seems like this thing is playing with us," Elk commented.

"Playing or not, I'm going to chase it!"

By the time we reached the dismaying doorway with purple mist, I was completely out of breath. Between fighting monsters and running as fast as we could, I had no time to rest. So when we arrived, I was so glad that Elk told us to hold on so he could cast strengthening spells, which I had no idea of.

I tried to remember the spell for health regeneration and for improving attack damage, but my fear was getting in the way of my memory.

I could hear their heavy breathing through their FMDs. Everyone was horrified.

"My hands are so sweaty," BlackRose whispered.

"I think I may puke," I replied, throwing a quick smile at her. It wasn't returned and I didn't blame her.

As we advanced through the doorway, I made sure to keep a death grip on Kite's hand so I wouldn't lose him through all the static. All I saw were purple, white noise waves, and then a drop of water. I tried to keep the screeching noise in my ears quiet by humming a stupid song that I remembered constantly playing on the radio during my drives to and from school. Beside me, I heard BlackRose's voice humming the same song, letting me know that she was still right there.

We reappeared on the floating mass of land where we had fought Skeith before, with only a few minor different details.

"I won't let you get away!" Kite yelled. As he ran toward Innis, his hand slipping from mine, I unleashed as many attacking spells as I could think of.

I could feel Elk's eyes on me as we battled and healed. I knew what he was thinking.

_How does she have access to all these different spells without switching equipment?_

I made eye contact with him and grinned. "You're doing good!"

"Tha—"

"Kite!" BlackRose screamed. I looked back just in time to see Kite's character turn transparent, meaning he had died.

"_Shit!_" I hissed, running as fast as I could to him. Kite was the only way we would be able to defeat Innis. We had to keep him alive.

I chanted the reviving spell, Rip Maen, and continued attacking Innis. However, I missed many of my attacks, as did the rest of my team. It was too fast. We couldn't keep up with it.

"Ap Do!" I heard Elk shout from behind me. Suddenly, I felt as if the whole world slowed down around me. Innis wasn't as fast as before; we were actually able to land hits.

"This thing is just playing a violent game of chase with us!" I yelled.

The longer the fight dragged on, the more I felt as though this monster was more powerful than Skeith. When three red dragons appeared behind it, I couldn't help but wonder why it was requesting the extra help. I'd revived BlackRose twice, Elk once, and Kite once. I just hoped it wasn't aiming to kill me next. I wasn't entirely sure I could be revived as easily as my teammates.

As I saw one of the dragons aim for me, I ran as fast as I could so it wouldn't swoop down into me. But I couldn't run fast enough, even with the hastening spell on me. It crashed onto my body, sending me to the ground, writhing in pain.

I'd never broken a bone in my body before, but I figured that if this were real life, I'd just broken five bones at once. My entire lower half and my left arm flared up in dull pain. I couldn't move, so all I could do was scream out until a blinding green light came from my body. Once the pain was gone, I knew Elk had healed me.

"Thank…," I called to him, but trailed off when I saw his facial expression. He stared at me with huge, curious eyes.

"Finally!" BlackRose yelled as the sound of glass shattering surrounded us. Kite rushed toward Innis, his wrist glowing brightly.

"Ap Do!" I shouted, remembering the spell. Kite was able to catch up with the monster, aiming directly at it's center.

Like Skeith, when the Data Drain was over, it transformed into a rock formation. We were half way through this fight. However, once Innis turn to it's new form, it was even faster and more powerful than it had been before. Even using Ap Do was hardly enough to make us fast enough to be able to attack it. We had to corner it in and use every attack we had.

When Innis finally fell, crumbling into a pool of blood, the ground began to shake violently. I ran toward BlackRose, grabbing onto her hand so we wouldn't be separated. Luckily, we were sent back to the dungeon.

"I got an item when I Data Drained Innis," Kite told us. I let go of BlackRose to wipe the sweat off on my legs.

"In the middle of a fight?" she questioned.

"Yeah. Anyway, there isn't anything we can do right now. Might as well go back."

Carmina Gadelica was void of any other players. We were completely alone in the town. Not even the NPCs stood at the shops or the Grunty Ranch.

"Where is everyone?" Elk asked.

"I don't know."

"You've done it again!" a voice boomed from behind us. The four of us snapped our bodies around to face Lios, floating near the Chaos Gate with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Where is everyone?" I asked, stealing Elk's question.

"We had to shut it down because of you."

"The town?"

"The entire server! Now we're getting customer complaint after customer complaint! I told you to _investigate_, not act! Now, I expect you to stay put until I give you further instructions! That is an order!" he barked before warping out.

Kite sighed and shook his head. "I think I'm done. Good night." BlackRose followed him, leaving only Elk and I alone in the town.

"Your character reminds me of Mia," he told me.

"I thought Mia was a cat." I tried to avoid his gaze, knowing he was studying me.

"She is. But I meant the way she moves. It just seems so much more natural than normal characters."

I kept my mouth shut. I didn't want Elk to know about my condition. Instead of pressing the matter, he gave up, wished me a good night, and left like all the others.

As I wandered the Root Town, I thought of how much I despised Lios. He had no right bossing us around like he was doing. Glancing over into the water, I watched my reflection. I was never really one to let other people push me around, so why was I allowing him to do this to us?


	17. Who is Cubia?

"Hello?"

I waved my hand in front of the player's face, looking for any kind of response. Instead of replying in a language I could understand, I received the monotonous tone repeating, "Grilnick grilnick."

"I really don't think these guys are real people," my sister said, looking at the double row of motionless characters.

Ever since we arrived in Carmina Gadelica and stumbled upon these "people," we had been trying to get a normal reply out of any of them. No other players roamed the town. It was just us, and these zombie people.

_What the hell is going on? I don't understand._

"This is creepy," I mumbled, starting toward the Chaos Gate. "We should le—"

A flash of golden rings caused me to let out an obnoxious scream and fall back onto my butt. Katashi laughed from behind me, while Kite let out a chuckle of his own in front of me as he held out a hand to help me up.

"Sorry, Rin," he said, smirking to himself. "I didn't think you'd be here."

"I could say the same for you," I replied, allowing him to help me up. "So, what's up? Anything new?"

"Well, I got an e-mail from Aura."

"Aura?" Katashi repeated.

My last memory of Aura was the dream I had. Just thinking about that horrifying experience sent an odd shiver down my spine. I couldn't imagine Aura trying to hurt me like that. I definitely couldn't imagine Balmung trying the same. He just wouldn't. They wouldn't.

"Who's that?" my sister asked. "Who's Aura?"

"She's…" I didn't know what to tell her.

_Who_ is_ Aura?_

"The e-mail was…strange," Kite continued. "It was more gibberish than anything. Remember that segment I got from our fight with Innis? She wants me to bring it somewhere. Or I think she does, at least."

"Well then we'll just take it to her."

Kite shook his head. I began to wonder if he even saw the odd characters that seemed to be moving closer to us.

"At the end of the message, the only part that _wasn't_ gibberish, it said, 'Beware of Cubia.'"

"Cubia?"

Behind Kite, BlackRose appeared in her own surroundings of golden rings. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned.

"I read your e-mail," she said to Kite. "Whatever this Cubia thing is, we have to get it out of the way!"

My sister took a step toward us. "I want to come too! It'll be easier with all four of us!"

_No way. There is no way you're coming. _

But if I knew anything about my sister, which I didn't, she would argue until she was blue in the face. Her stubbornness, after all, was the reason why I started playing The World in the first place. That same stubbornness would follow the journey to the end to make sure everything was fixed.

From the silence, I knew Kite and BlackRose were having a private conversation. Even though Katashi had joined along with us once before to a possibly dangerous area, I knew Kite was hesitant on letting her come this time. We had no idea who, or what, Cubia was. We didn't know if it could kill us with one hit, or hardly damage us at all.

"Okay," I answered. "You can come."

"What?" Kite and BlackRose yelled simultaneously.

"Why not? She's right. The more skilled players we have, the better our chances are to survive whatever this thing might be."

Kite looked at Katashi for a long while in silence, then sighed. "You're right."

Lambda: Merciless, Grieving, Furnace, I believe, was designed to look like the surface of the sun. Between the botched data areas, bright red magma blazed through, giving the impression that you would burst into flames just by standing on it. Every so often, bursts of air escaped the magma in deep whistles.

I frowned as I realized that the area wasn't protected.

_Is the infection spreading into areas without CC Corp realizing it? At this rate, any player can be harmed by this._

The dungeon of the area was a dark castle peeking out from a formation of molten rocks. Once we entered, I realized how low the lighting was, which was strange.

"You know," my sister started as we walked through the corridors, "when I first started to play this game, I never imagined that I would ever be in this situation. I mean, this is supposed to be just a _game._ Something that you play in your spare time or to get away from your shitty life, or maybe your not-so-shitty life. The World is not supposed to be something that changes how you are in your real life. I don't know. I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say. I just don't regret joining this game."

We didn't reply to her, but as we battled through the monsters that came shooting from the Magic Portals, we were probably all thinking the same thing: this game was slowly changing us. It was changing not only who we were portraying inside The World, but also who we really were outside of it.

After exploring every single room, we stood in the middle of the very last one. It was empty, until Kite's chest glowed a deep crimson color. An orb emerged from his body and floated into the air, taking on the form of Aura.

She wasn't how I remembered, though. Not the scared and conscious girl who had been Data Drained by Skeith right before our eyes, or even the insane blood-thirsty creature from my dream. Now, hovering before us, she looked almost dead. Her eyes were closed and her head tilted to the side.

"Is that…" Katashi didn't finish her sentence.

"Aura," Kite whispered, raising his hand to her. As soon as he got close, the bracelet began to shine. It was responding to her presence.

A terrible screeching noise caught us all off guard. Kite and BlackRose readied their weapons, I fell backwards, and Katashi let out a short cry as she covered her ears. The ground shook violently, making it impossible for me to stand back up.

Aura, without opening her eyes, ascended up into the darkness of the room, taking the orb with her.

"Hey, come back!" BlackRose yelled. Just as she finished, the ground below us transformed into a thin disc-shaped area. The color distinctly reminded me of how Kite's bracelet looked when he was performing Data Drain on an enemy.

The ground stopped shaking, so I hurried to my feet before it had the chance to keep me down again. A thunderous roar sounded behind us. We all whipped around to face the monster I had seen after our fight with Skeith. There was no doubt about it. This thing was Cubia.

"What the hell?" Katashi whispered to herself, tilting her head back to look up at Cubia's teeth, each of which I realized were at least twice my size.

A red pulsing core appeared before us. It looked exactly like a heart. Four smaller targets surrounded it, each of them resembling a jagged octopus.

"Gomora," BlackRose muttered, facing the smaller monsters.

I didn't have much time to react when one of the Gomoras reared back and slammed it's body into me. I yelped in pain, trying to shake as much of it off as I could, and fell onto the ground.

"Ani Kruz!" I shouted, pointing the tip of my staff toward the Gomora. Skulls appeared all around it and smashed onto it, damaging it only slightly.

I watched as my teammates aimed at the larger enemy, named "Cubia Core." Every time their weapon collided with it, a barrier shot up to protect it. Physical tolerance.

"Just use magic attacks!" I shouted. "You're not hurting it at all!"

"Gan Don!"

"Vak Kruz!"

"GiRai Rom!"

With each attack, Cubia roared in pain. We were damaging it!

I hurried to my feet and raised my staff over my head. "Merrows!" I shouted, feeling the presence of the water god behind me. Ice shards pierced through the Cubia Core, causing it to disappear.

Cubia's long roots shot out above us, pointing down like sharp knives. In less than a second, they were attached to the disc, piercing through Katashi and BlackRose and through my leg.

I couldn't breathe. When the root retracted, I expected blood, but there was nothing. However, the pain was tremendous. I had basically been stabbed.

"Repth!" Kite called. Slowly, the pain receded.

As I regained my air in my lungs, Kite healed Katashi and BlackRose, who hurried to cast spells on the Cubia Core. Like before, the barrier shot up and they instantly knew to begin attacking with their weapons.

While they slashed away at our main target, I healed and attacked the new and completely healed Gomoras with my spells.

"Rue Repulse!" Katashi yelled.

"Almost there!"

"Twin Dragons!" Kite shouted. He began leaping at the Cubia Core, twisting and moving almost as if he was dancing.

Again, the target disappeared and the roots rose up. I watched them this time, and when they shot down, I jumped out of the way, only to jump to the very edge of the disc.

"Rin!" Kite called as I toppled over, just barely grabbing the edge. I desperately tried to dig my fingers into the surface, but there was nothing solid for me on grip onto.

"Grab it!" Katashi ordered, sticking her spear down toward me. Quickly, I hopped from the disc to her weapon to be pulled up.

Once I was back onto the disc, I saw Kite and BlackRose attacking with magic. My sister and I didn't hesitate to join in and with only a few more attacks, the Cubia Core fell to the ground, collapsing into itself.

"We did it!" BlackRose cried out happily.

Cubia let out a pained groan and fell back into the darkness. I sighed in relief, allowing my hand to release the death grip it had on my staff. I shook it out, trying to rid myself of the cramp.

Just when we thought it was over, Cubia's eyes lit up from the darkness, illuminating it's entire body. In a quick flash, it soared into the air and disappeared.

"It ran," Kite whispered.

"I'm impressed. You managed to defeat Cubia," a female voice said from behind us. Helba floated calmly, a proud smirk planted on her face.

"Ms. Helba," Kite addressed.

"Don't call me Ms.," she replied in a disgusted tone. "What you must do now is release Aura."

"Would that lead to helping Orca and Rin?"

Helba turned to me and pursed her lips together. "A question of possibility. That is all I can say for now."


	18. So Much Closer

"So you two are sisters?" Balmung asked in a disbelieving tone.

Katashi and I both smiled at him, nodding simultaneously. "That's right! Rin is older by about four years or so. I don't know. I don't really keep track of it."

When we finally warped to Delta: Boundless, Momentary, Scaffold, I stared around at the area. My early adventures of the game made my decision that where there was rain meant that I would automatically like the area. This particular area, although too low leveled for my sister, poured water from the sky. I couldn't feel it on my skin, but I only had to close my eyes and remind myself of rainy days back home.

"You don't act anything like each other," Balmung stated as we began for the dungeon.

"Well, do you act anything like your siblings?" my sister replied.

As I listened to them badger each other, I fell into my own thoughts. Ever since Cubia had run from us, Orca had strangely been on my mind most of the time, even when I was with Balmung. He was Data Drained, just like we were, but he wasn't stuck inside of his character.

Or maybe he was, but we just hadn't seen him around? Maybe he was somewhere in a forgotten dungeon, staying near the Gott Statue to stay safe.

_Maybe. But with how many people play The World, someone must have found him eventually. Then again, even if they had, they probably would have just thought him for a regular character._

"Penny for your thoughts?" Balmung asked, snapping me back just as we descended into the dark dungeon.

I threw him a quick smile, not entirely in the mood to explain all of the things running through my mind. "Oh, nothing really."

"I'm not sure I belie—"

"Rin!"

I peered deeper into the darkness of the hallway that we were standing in. Slowly, Elk's figure emerged, followed by a taller one with huge ears sticking from the head. It didn't take me long to realize it was a biped cat. Mia, no doubt.

"Hi, Elk!" I replied.

As Mia came closer to me, I began to feel more and more anxious. The way she stared at Balmung and I, the way her tail twitched back and forth in rapid spasms made me feel as though she was about to attack us.

"How are you?" Elk asked with a wide smile on his face. He seemed so much different than the last time I had seen him. Then again, he wasn't with Mia the last time. She must've had a huge effect on his personality.

"I'm great. Yourself? Oh, I almost forgot. Elk, this is my friend, Balmung, and my sister, Katashi," I introduced, motioning toward them as I said their names. "And this is Elk."

As Elk greeted them, I glanced toward Mia. Her long, thin pupils bore into my eyes and I felt as if I couldn't look away.

"This is my very best friend, Mia," Elk told us. She grinned, showing off her sharp teeth, and held out her hand toward me.

"Its nice to meet you," she said. Her tone was so confident and sly – a tone that would make someone hesitant to trust her.

The moment I wrapped my fingers around her hand, I felt an extremely odd warmth about her, underneath the fur. It was a warmth that all the other characters, aside from Balmung, lacked. Something about Mia was too alive to be ordinary.

"Likewise," I replied.

I watched her shake Balmung's hand. I knew from his expression that he noticed the exact same thing I did. And oddly enough, she only smiled and nodded to my sister, keeping her hand to herself.

"Have you guys finished the dungeon?" Katashi asked.

"Not entirely. We were trying to reach the Gott Statue when Mia said she heard people talking and wanted to investigate. That's when we found you guys. Want to come with us?" Elk answered.

"Why not?"

So we combined our teams, although not able to make a party. As we fought through the dungeon, I watched Mia's movements. They were strange in the way that she was dancing more than she was fighting. Everything about her was seductive. Her hips, her breasts (which, may I add, were very perky and model-like), and more than anything, her eyes. I started to wonder if she truly was Elk's friend, or something more.

"How did you guys meet?" I asked as we waited for Elk's SP to recover.

Elk glanced at Mia and smiled shyly. "Its been so long, but I remember perfectly. I was having a terrible day at school. My classmates were being especially rude and hurtful, and my parents were fighting at home, so I logged onto The World and picked a random area to be alone in. I even remember which area it was. It was Delta: Plenteous Smiling Hypha. I saw Mia there, sitting by herself with an item called Aromatic Grass in her lap. I felt like I had already known her my entire life. I sat next to her and she said—"

"What's the matter?" Mia butted in, staring directly at me. I wasn't sure if she was finishing Elk's story or actually asking me the question.

"I…"

"Let's keep going. I have a feeling we're almost there," Balmung said, taking hold of my hand and leading me away from the cat. Katashi followed closely behind us, knowing something strange was going on.

He was right. The room after the next held the Gott Statue. It was almost as if Mia was leading us straight to it. The entire time, we didn't run into any dead ends.

"Here we are," she announced. "The fruits of our labor!"

"You can have the treasure," Balmung told her, keeping his grip on my hand. "You did lead us right here after all."

"You're right," she told him, kicking the treasure chest open. "I have a keen sense for sought after objects."

Mia was silent for a few moments, bending over the treasure chest. She thoroughly freaked me out to the point where I wondered how Elk could even stand to be around her for such a long time.

"Let's go on another adventure together!" Mia suddenly decided, throwing her hands up into the air as she turned to face us.

"Uh, you know, I have school in the morning," Katashi muttered, sinking away from the cat's booming voice. "I should probably get going." In a speedy fashion, she gated out, leaving us all alone with Mia and Elk.

"Well, how about you two?" Mia pressured, glaring at Balmung and me. "Are you up for another?"

"Actually, Mia," Elk butted in, "I have school tomorrow too. Its late here where I live."

"Oh, okay," she answered him in a motherly tone. "You should get to bed, then. Well, Rin, Balmung, I had a very good time with you two. We'll see each other again."

As soon as the two of them left, my feeling of dead instantly vanished. I sighed and allowed my hand to release the death grip I had on Balmung's hand.

He chuckled under his breath, flexing the muscles in his hand. "Well, she's a charmer, isn't she?"

"If by charmer, you mean creepy as all hell, then yes, she is." I leaned against the wall and smiled at him. "Ready to go back?"

"Not quite. I like it here, and there was something I wanted to talk to you about when we were alone."

My smile quickly faded. "Uh-oh. Am I in trouble?"

"No, I'm just curious as to how the investigation is going on your side."

I exhaled deeply. Finally, a chance to get everything out – everything that had been happening with Innis and Cubia, and the idiot that Lios was.

We sat facing each other as I explained our journey up to this point. As I talked, Balmung stared at me intently, his chin resting in his palm, propped up by his elbow on his knee.

"Cubia," he muttered. "Do you have any idea of what it could have been?"

I shook my head slowly. "I don't think I have an idea. All I know is that it appeared when we encountered Aura, and then ran away while we were fighting it."

"Hm."

Without any kind of warning (or permission), he reached over to grab a few strands of my hair with his pointer and middle finger. I felt frozen, but I knew I wasn't because my face was on fire.

"You know, I worry about you," Balmung whispered. I wasn't even sure what to say to that. When I didn't reply, he continued, "I know I shouldn't. You're a grown woman, after all. However, this game is so dangerous, especially with our condition."

I wasn't sure what point he was trying to get across to me.

_Are you going to try to talk me out of working with Kite? Because that is _not _going to happen. _

"What are you trying to say?" I demanded to know.

A soft smile graced his lips and within seconds, those lips were on mine. I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move.

"I just worry. That's all."

And again, we were touching in the most intimate way possible, without being too close. It was the way I'd been wanting since I first met him. And this time, it was my doing.


	19. Secrets

"_Rin!_"

"Huh?" I mumbled, finally realizing that Kite and BlackRose had been trying to get my attention for the past few seconds. I blinked my eyes rapidly, trying to rid myself from the daze that I had fallen into.

Mistral giggled beside me. "Someone has a lot on their mind!" she teased, nudging me with her shoulder.

I smiled to myself. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Are we ready?" Kite asked, returning to the Chaos Gate. We nodded and instantly warped to Lambda: Dying, Madness, Haunted Land.

They had gotten hint of the area from Linda. She said that Orca had been searching this place, and that Balmung was retracing his steps. As Kite was telling me, he added that it would be a good idea to copy Balmung.

The area opened into a jungle. We remained very cautious as we battled through the area and dungeon. The monsters seemed odd. They seemed to move slower than usual, making defeating them undesirably easy.

"What is this?" Mistral finally asked, throwing her arms into the air. "I feel like I'm fighting beginner monsters! Do I look like a beginner to you? Huh? Huh?!" She inched closer to me, pointing a stiff finger to her face. I couldn't help but giggle at her, causing her to do the same.

"We aren't here for the monsters," Kite said, bringing us back. I could tell he was nervous.

"Right, sorry."

"Well, this is the last room." BlackRose stood in front of a dark doorway. Mistral and I hurried to cast strengthening spells and we pushed through.

The room we entered was another infinity room – a room that stretched on forever. Broken birdcages littered the floor, rusted parts and bird feathers surrounding them. There were a few cages still hanging, but a part of me expected them to come crashing to the ground.

A sudden voice echoed around us, "When the finger points to yonder moon, the fool will not look at the fingertip."

"That's a part of the Epitaph," BlackRose whispered.

I involuntarily jumped when I felt a presence behind me.

"Why are you here?" Balmung demanded to know from Kite.

_Are you kidding me?_

Kite's soft face turned serious and his eyes narrowed into a glare. "I'm not going to fight with you, Balmung. I just need to know what's lurking in this game."

"It has nothing to do with you."

I noticed that Mistral had inched closer to Balmung, looking closely at his neck. My heart dropped into my stomach and before I could reach her to yank her back, she escaped my arm's length.

"It has everything to do with us!"

"Balmung of the Azure Sky, Orca of the Azure Sea. Shouldn't your goals be the same? Isn't there some connection between the strange things happening here and the girl, Aura?"

"I won't let you cause any more damage!" Balmung hissed. "And I won't repeat myself. Do not interf—"

"IS THAT A HICKEY?!" Mistral screamed, pointing to the small bruise-like spot on Balmung's neck. My face instantly heated up and I felt nauseous.

Kite and BlackRose turned to me, waiting for an explanation. What could I tell them?

"Oh my goodness," Mistral whispered slowly, making some sort of connection between Balmung and myself.

I heard Balmung say something under his breath and gate out in a hurry. The four of us stayed silent. I didn't know what to say or what to do.

_They know. There's no way I can get out of this. They're going to think I'm a traitor. _

"Well, that's a surprise," Kite finally said. "I never would have thought that you two would…you know."

"I didn't even know characters were that detailed down there," BlackRose added.

"It wasn't like that!" I defended, holding my hands up in front of me. "We didn't…do that. It was just…I don't know."

Honestly, I didn't know. What _was _it?

I thought back on what happened. There was a lot of kissing. That was it.

My hand found it's way to my chest, right above my left breast. I knew there was a matching bruise there.

_It was almost like we were drunk or something._

"Anyway, I just want to know how he got into a Protected Area," Kite said, taking us away from the subject. I think he knew how uncomfortable I was.

"He probably just followed right behind us."

We retuned back to town. Mistral announced that she needed to start cooking dinner and left. BlackRose simply said, "Bye." and left Kite and I alone. I could tell she was upset. I just didn't know if I should apologize or stand my ground with her.

"Do you want to talk about it? I have time before my parents get home from work," Kite asked.

"Sure." I just hoped he wasn't as mad at me as BlackRose was.

We moved closer to the Grunty Ranch and peered over into the water. I stared at my reflection, trying to remember what I used to look like. My mind came up blank.

_Who am I really? If I can't remember what I look like in real life, can I honestly say I know who I am?_

"I'm not mad at you," Kite started. "I mean, about the whole Balmung thing. I understand, actually. I'm sure it gets pretty lonely here. And I'm sure he's even lonelier."

"How so?" It was strange hearing Kite sympathize with Balmung. Then again, Kite was the most level-headed out of all of us.

"He has absolutely nobody here, except you. At least you have BlackRose and me, and your sister. Sometimes I think that's the reason why he's so bitter. Maybe he thinks the whole world is against him."

I only stared at Kite, completely unsure of what to say. Everything he said made perfect sense.

_That could be why Balmung is so gentle and caring around me, but when Kite and BlackRose are around, he's dangerous and angry._

"So, is he your boyfriend now?" Kite asked. I chuckled and shook my head.

"Yeah, right. I don't even know what he looks like in real life, or if he even really told me the truth about his age. Anyway, I wanted to tell you, and I also want to change the subject, that I finally met Mia."

"How did that go?"

"We met her and Elk in a dungeon on accident. She's very…I don't know how to describe her. I don't know how, but she _knew_ Balmung and I are stuck here."

Kite chuckled softly. "She is a pretty weird person. When I first met her, she knew I had the bracelet, even though none of us can see it."

"So what's the deal with her an Elk? Are they like…lovers or something?"

His chuckle advanced to a rolling laugh that lasted for about two minutes. I tried frowning at him to seem angry that he was laughing at my question, but I only started to laugh with him.

"Lovers? I'm about 1000% sure they aren't. Mia is more like…Elk's big sister."

"Do you know anything about Elk?"

"Nothing much, except that he's a thirteen-year-old boy in school."

I turned back to the water, gazing at my reflection. Elk was so young and something about Mia told me she was doing more harm than helping him.

"Oh, my parents are home. I'm going to go for the night. I'll see you later, Rin," Kite said before logging out.

I sighed and folded my arms on top of the short wall separating the walking space from the water. I rested my forehead on my arm and touched the spot on my chest.

"Fantastic."


	20. The Best Of Friends

"Repth. Repth. Repth!"

"You've got to be kidding me."

I sighed, backing away from Balmung's neck. Nothing was working. We tried hot water, viciously rubbing, and healing spells. No matter what we tried, the hickey remained.

He buried his forehead into his palm and shook his head. "I can't believe this," he muttered. "Do you know the last time I had a hickey? Never! Because I don't let it happen!"

"I'm sorry, okay?! Its not like you were you trying to stop me!"

He shot a glare at me and instead of yelling like I expected, he just groaned and shielded his head again. "Don't apologize. This is my fault. I never should've started it."

I bit down on my lower lip. "Are you saying you regret it?"

Again, his eyes met mine and in a split second, his lips were on mine.

_What the hell is going on? I'm so confused…_

"No," he whispered, holding my face in his hands. "No, I don't regret it. You are the only thing since we've been trapped here that I'm sure of, that I'm sure won't turn against me."

I shook myself free of his grasp and stood up. "What the fuck is going on with you?" I asked a little too harshly. I glanced at the statue of Aura, then turned back to him. "One minute, you're threatening my life, then the next, you're so incredibly sweet, and now you're kissing me. Not that I'm complaining or anything." I stopped, realizing that I was rambling. "I guess I just want to know, are you bipolar? Or do you have a personality disorder or something?"

Balmung shifted his gaze away, an amused smirk planted on his face. "I'm pretty sure I don't have any disorders." He, too, stood and leaned against the wall. "I don't know what else to tell you. I like you. I want you around."

I stared into his eyes, which quickly narrowed.

_I can't argue against him._

:-:-:-:

Kite, BlackRose, and I warped to Lambda: Dazzling, Sage's, Artic; an area in which we were to meet a player named Wiseman, who had information we needed.

As we treaded through the snowy area, I expected BlackRose to say something, _anything_, to me, but instead she only ignored me. I didn't blame her. Unlike Kite, she was more stubborn.

"Where is this guy?" Kite finally asked.

"01 said he'd be in the area. He didn't specify where in the area he'd be," BlackRose replied. "I'd say the dungeon is our safest bet."

I glanced at Kite who returned with a reassuring smile.

_Everything is going to be just fine._

Wiseman could not have picked a harder dungeon to hide away in. Not only was the dungeon five stories deep, but it was also huge. We hit so many dead-ends that, eventually, I stopped counting.

"Ugh!" BlackRose cried out when we finally reached the bottom floor. "This is so frustrating!"

"What if this guy isn't even logged in right now?" I questioned.

"The person I've been e-mailing says Wiseman is logged in nearly all hours of the day. He's here," she snapped.

I sighed and shook my head. How much longer was she going to be mad at me?

We arrived in a large room, seeing three players: two Blademasters and a tall Wavemaster with silver hair and a long dark blue coat. As we walked closer, the two Blademasters thanked the other and left.

I could finally see the fine details of the character. He was much older, with wrinkles, tanned skin, and strange symbols on his face. Even his voice was old.

"Are you here to offer a trade?" he asked calmly.

"Not exactly," BlackRose answered.

"We came to ask about the Epitaph of Twilight," Kite told him.

Wiseman smirked slyly, making eye contact with each of us. "Hm…The Epitaph of Twilight." The way he said it reminded me of an old man reminiscing on his childhood. "Such knowledge comes at a steep price."

"What are your terms?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Give me time. I'll respond via e-mail by this time tomorrow."

"If we have to wait, you should lower the price."

Wiseman chuckled. "Yes, that is how these things work. Very well. I will."

Before we had any time to demand even lower prices, he warped out. We, too, returned to Carmina Gadelica.

Kite turned to BlackRose and me and simply said before logging out, "You two need to talk."

The silence between us was almost too much to bear. At one point, I began to wonder if BlackRose had left her computer. But then, I heard her sigh.

"You know, I feel like you betrayed us," she bluntly said.

"I know, but I didn't. I'm sure I didn't tell him anything that would ruin our plans." I wasn't entirely sure if that was the truth. I couldn't honestly remember every single thing I'd told Balmung since I met him.

"Its not that. It's the fact that he's so against us doing the right thing in all this and you're…you're…"

"Siding with him?"

"Are you?"

"No, absolutely not. I'm with you and Kite 100%. I just…Balmung is the only one who really knows what I'm doing through. You know how some people play games like this to escape the real world? Well I would give anything to escape this world and go back to my regular, boring life."

BlackRose nodded. "I don't blame you. I mean, I'm done blaming you. I guess that was the wrong thing to say." She sighed and covered her eyes with her hands. "I'm sorry. Ever since that whole incident with Balmung, I wanted to just blow up on you. But I can't. You know, if we were to really meet in real life like we should have, we would have been the best of friends."

"Aren't we already?"

She glanced at me, dropping her hands from her eyes, and grinned. "Yeah, we are."


	21. Lost One

"'Let's rid ourselves of the formalities and get straight to the point,'" BlackRose said, mocking Wiseman's creepily deep voice. "Lambda: Blooming, Promised, Walkway. That's where he said the Spark Sword is."

"So we have to get the Spark Sword and bring it back to him?" I asked.

"Sounds easy," Mistral said, nudging me. "Especially when we've got two kickass Wavemasters on the case!"

I smiled and nudged her back, feeling relieved that she was coming with us. Just before BlackRose had gathered us all together, I had sat with her and just unloaded every single thing that had been piling up on my chest since the last time I'd seen her.

Kite nodded to himself and turned toward the Chaos Gate. "Protected. I wonder if Wiseman is aware of this."

"I really hate seeing areas like this," Mistral commented when we warped to the area. Broken, as always.

_Seeing areas with broken code doesn't really affect me. But I suppose to someone who truly loves this game, its like seeing their car with a broken window or their house with graffiti on the side._

Wiseman could not have picked a more ridiculously difficult area to send us to. Every single room in the dungeon contained a Magic Portal and those Magic Portals contained a tough monster that none of us had ever seen before. Although the area information said the level was right around my party member's level, I had my doubts.

"Can we take a break for a minute?" I asked after reaching B3. I was panting, my head was pounding, and my legs felt weak.

"Of course," Kite replied. We all fell silent, with the exception of Mistral's humming.

As I waited to catch my breath, I watched the movements of my friends. The way their characters breathed seemed so flawless that I soon found my own body breathing in rhythm with theirs. My heart plummeted.

_Maybe I'm not so different from these 1's and 0's._

"Ready?" BlackRose asked. I nodded, completely unsure of my voice.

We continued on through the strenuous dungeon, facing every single monster we encountered with the utmost cautious tactics until finally, we reached the familiar purple mist.

"You know what this usually means," I muttered, glancing at Kite. He nodded.

"There's something here."

Mistral and I casted strengthening and hastening spells as quickly as we could before we pushed through. A Magic Portal opened, revealing a large dragon monster, covered in bright green hexes.

"Shit," I heard BlackRose hiss to herself.

Before we even had the chance to ready ourselves, the dragon reared it's head back and released a gigantic wave of flames at us. My teammates were damaged while I was barely able to scramble away in time to dodge. With a simultaneous raise of our staffs, Mistral and I healed.

"We can't let that hit us again!" Kite called out as we each ran in different directions. "It took too much of our health away!"

"Right!"

"Good thing I'm a master at water spells!" Mistral called out cockily. "Rue Kruz!" Shards of ice rose high above the dragon's head and within seconds, they stabbed through nearly every part of it's body.

The dragon's eyes narrowed dangerously at Mistral. She yelped and tried running away when the dragon gathered fire in it's mouth and shot it at her. But instead of successfully dodging the attack, she ran straight into me, slamming me to the floor and tripping over my body. I barely had enough time to cover my face with my arm before I felt the intense, painful heat of the attack. I could only scream.

"Rin! Are you okay?!" Mistral screamed in my ear when the flames dispersed.

"I-I…I think so…"

Honestly, I wasn't. I felt as if my skin was flaking off into small black pieces, but when I looked at it, it seemed perfectly normal.

"Repth," I muttered, shutting my eyes tightly. Within moments, I felt a million times better.

By the time I steadied myself on my feet, the dragon had been successfully Data Drained. Kite and BlackRose slashed away at it with their weapons while Mistral unleashed any sort of water spell she had up her sleeve. The dragon itself was lower leveled so within a few attacks, it crashed to the ground with a pitiful roar of defeat.

"Huh," Kite muttered to himself.

"What's wrong?"

"I got the Spark Sword…from the monster itself."

That was very strange to happen. Usually if you got an item from a monster at all, it came from a chest that sprung up where the carcass would disappear. It was never directly given to your character from the monster.

We returned to Carmina Gadelica just in time to see Balmung talking to a merchant NPC, indicating that it must have been Lios.

"Balmung!" I called out, but before I could get a running start to him, Lios warped out. Balmung made quick eye contact with me, glanced down, and left in the same way Lios did.

"What was that all about?" BlackRose questioned.

"I have no idea," I answered. "Anyway, we should get back to Wiseman."

This time through, we rushed through the dungeon, destroying anything we came across in half the time as before. This exhausted me beyond belief and I could tell it was wearing on my teammates. During our venture, Mistral left us twice to use the bathroom, then came back with a nervous giggle and a half-assed explanation that hardcore fighting makes her anxious and when she's anxious, she always has to pee.

"You're back already," Wiseman stated, turning to face us.

"You stay here the whole time?" Mistral demanded to know.

Wiseman shrugged, then bore his dark eyes into mine. "I just think more clearly in this area. This is my sanctuary. I'm sure you can understand."

_He knows._

I didn't say anything. Instead, I just watched as Kite showed the Spark Sword. Nobody spoke for a long time as Wiseman looked over the item.

When he was finished, he looked at each of us individually. "Who _are_ you people?"

"Excuse me?" BlackRose replied. "That's hardly a thing to ask! We got you what you wanted, now give us the information you promised!"

"You travel in a pack of four, you're able to obtain an item from a Protected Area, and you have a Lost One in your party."

"A Lost One?" I repeated slowly.

"A player who has fallen victim to this game. But your case is different. It isn't customary for a Lost One to become their character."

"How did you know?" Kite asked defensively.

"I am a man of information," Wiseman casually replied. "It isn't as if CC Corp. hasn't taken notice to your...condition."

_Lios…What are you trying to do?_

"We aren't here to talk about me," I snapped. "Give us what we want."

"Certainly," he replied with a light chuckle. "But I must ask, how did you manage to obtain this from that area?"

Without hesitation, Kite blurted everything from what happened to Balmung and me, to Aura, to what happened to Orca. "And with the book that Aura gave to me, she also gave me the power to get into Protected Areas with Virus Cores."

Wiseman stared at Kite silently, then eventually said, "I see. If that truly is the case, if something like that could happen to such powerful players like Orca and Balmung, then I will help you. I apologize for testing you. I will send what I have of the _Epitaph of Twilight_ via e-mail."

Without another word, he warped out. My friends turned to me, none of them completely sure what to say.

_A Lost One…There's a name for people like me. A Lost One. _


	22. The Propagation

"You haven't seen him since?" Mistral asked, giving me a disapproving frown. I shook my head, dipping my feet into the digital water. It sure felt real.

"Nope. Usually we meet in the cathedral, but I've gone every day for the past five days, and he isn't there. What If he's…you know?" I couldn't say it.

"Nah. I don't think he's kicked the bucket. But I have to admit, it is a little weird. Seeing him talking to Lios, then he basically dodged you, and now you haven't seen him since then."

I had thought that Mistral's company would help make me feel better, but so far, it was doing the exact opposite. I thought of nothing to reply with, thinking maybe I should have searched for my sister instead.

"Oh," I muttered, looking up at the Wavemaster, who was slowly sticking her staff into the water to see how deep it was. "Have you seen my sister lately?"

"Nope!" she piped, throwing her weapon up and sending water droplets everywhere. "She's probably just busy with school."

_Like I should be…_

She gasped softly and blankly stared off into the space. This told me that she had just received a message. Without any warning, she grabbed my hand and began dragging me toward the Chaos Gate.

"Hey, hey, hey!" I yelled. "Mind telling me what's going on?!"

"Wandering AI. Keywords. Now!"

She must have gotten information from Kite, BlackRose, or Wiseman. Another AI. Hopefully this one would give us some further clues.

As soon as I realized what her words meant, I was running in front of her and it suddenly turned into a race. I narrowly dodged people in fear of my own safety while she piled right through them. Of course, she won.

"Thirty-four seconds!" BlackRose cried when we met her and Kite at the Mac Anu Chaos Gate.

"You win," Kite muttered, feigning disappointment.

"What? Were you betting on us?" I asked, placing my hands on my hips.

"Yeah, and I lost. I thought you two would've gotten here earlier." He gave me an amused smirk and I nudged him gently, even though I knew he couldn't feel it.

We partied up and exchanged items as Kite explained the situation. There was a thread on the BBS that related to Aura. The person who had posted it gave the keywords Delta: Scattering Fossil's, Milestone with the information of a strange character speaking of a Net Slum, and asked if anyone had any answers about it.

We warped to the area, an unprotected one, and stared forward at the broken graphics. It was spreading to normal areas now. How long until it infected the entire game?

_We have to stop it before it gets to that point._

For a long time, we didn't move. The four of us just took there, taking in this shock. Suddenly, I felt a warm pressure on my hand. Looking down, I saw Mistral's in mine. She smiled at me, but I knew she was scared too. We all were.

I wanted my sister to be here. I wanted Balmung to be here. I just wanted to be normal.

"Shall we?" BlackRose muttered, and we started forth.

The dungeon was incredibly and uncomfortably easy. Nearly Magic Portal held a treasure chest and the ones that held monsters revealed creatures that could be killed within two or three hits of a blade. I didn't heal my teammates even once.

At the lowest level, we found a broken Wavemaster with holes through his body.

"Plaird," BlackRose whispered. I assumed it was this character's name.

"Do you know? I'm looking for something. Do you know where it is?" Plaird rambled on, advancing toward us.

"Wh-What are you looking for?" Kite asked. The three of them began backing away from Plaird, but I felt as if my feet were glued to the floor. I couldn't help but stare into his damaged eyes, which moved every which way, but never into my own eyes.

"I don't know. That's why I'm looking. I don't know. What is 'I don't know'?"

"Come up, stop playing around!" BlackRose yelled.

Plaird stopped right in front of me. If I moved my hand even an inch, I'd be touching him.

_I can't breathe…I can't breathe…_

"Come on? Come off? Rendezvous in Net Slum," he said hastily, as if there was no time. "Rendezvous in Lambda: Pulsating, Worst, Core. Rendezvous with no schedule. I hope you can make it. I'm sure you can make our rendezvous. What's 'rendezvous'? What's 'looking'? What's 'what'? I don't know, I don't know. I don't know what I don't know."

A blinding white light surrounding Plaird's body and in an instant, he was gone, leaving only Lios standing behind him. In a rasping gasp, I fell to my knees and doubled over, struggling to find my breath. BlackRose immediately ran to my side, placing a hand on my back.

"Are you okay?" she whispered.

"Can't…breathe…"

"That effect will wear off soon," Lios informed me. He stood glaring at us, as usual, with his arms crossed over his chest, as usual.

"What did you do?!" Kite demanded to know.

"I deleted trash data! You should be thanking me. A character that infected was damaging your friend."

Finally, air was returning to my lungs. I glowered at him and raised my middle finger to him. "Go to hell."

"For doing my job? I don't think you stupid kids realize the way the world works. Now, unless you wanted to be deleted like your precious friend here, I suggest you wait for my instructions and do nothing otherwise." Before we could retaliate, he was gone.

"Let's go," I said, slowly standing to my feet.

"Are you sure you're okay for it? Do you want to take a break first?" BlackRose asked. I could tell from her tone that she was concerned.

"I'm okay. I want to get there before Lios tries to stop us. Besides, I need to know what Net Slum is."

Kite nodded. He didn't hesitate to take us back to Mac Anu, where we promptly headed to Carmina Gadelica.

"Balmung," I whispered, staring directly into his eyes. Instead of looking at me, however, he turned to Kite.

"Here," he muttered with obvious distain in his voice.

In a quick second, we made eye contact and my heart fell. The look in his eyes and the sullen expression on his face told me more than words could. I knew there was something wrong – that there had _been_ something wrong. I didn't know for how long, but it was there. That feeling that I had been missing something so obvious this entire time. I didn't know what it was, but I was going to find out sooner or later.

"Thanks," Kite replied a little too late. Balmung was gone before the word came out.

"What did you get?" Mistral asked, standing on her toes to look over his shoulder as if she could see it.

"Nothing," Kite replied in a dream-like state. "Let's go."

We turned to the Chaos Gate and I felt as if I was dreaming. Nothing felt real. My entire safety bubble had been popped, leaving me as vulnerable as when I woke up the first day I became trapped.

"Do you have enough Virus Cores?" BlackRose asked when we realized the area was protected.

"Thanks to Balmung, yeah."

_How did he get his hands on a Virus Core?_

A barren wasteland spread out before us, damaged beyond recognition. In normal areas, there were random structures that would give hints of how the environment came to be. However, there was absolutely nothing here, aside from the dungeon I could hardly see in the distance.

"East, north, south, west, north. The gates to Paradise will open!" BlackRose cried out.

I turned to her, entirely confused. "What?"

"Guess not," she muttered to herself, then acknowledged me. "It was in the e-mail Wiseman sent me, along with a part of the _Epitaph_. I just thought maybe…"

"We'll try elsewhere," Kite suggested, and we headed for the dungeon.

There were hardly any Magic Portals on the way and we were able to easily avoid the ones we did find. As we walked, I kept my gaze on the ground in front of me. I tried counting the number of data fissures I stepped over to keep my mind off Balmung, but it didn't help. My anxiety was here to stay until I figured out what was going on.

"This is a little weird," Kite said to himself, looking over the map of the first floor of the dungeon. He had used an item that allowed him to see all the rooms, treasure chests, and Magic Portals on this floor.

"What is?" I asked.

"Its just a weird layout. We just have to go forward a few tiny rooms and we'll reach the stairs."

"Look at all those treasure chests!" Mistral cried out happily, running ahead to the next room. Within seconds, she was transported back to us. "What the heck is this all about?"

"East, north, south, west, north. The gates to Paradise will open," BlackRose repeated. "This must have been what that was about."

So we continued along according to the directions. Finally, after a few hiccups along the way, we reached the descending staircase. I sighed in relief, feeling an annoyance headache coming on. The only thing we found down the stairs was an old Shinto shrine in a pure white room.

"Dead-end?" I asked.

"Whaaaaaaaat?!" Mistral screeched, adding to my headache. "We came all this way for noth—"

I was lost in darkness, unable to find my teammates or cry out for them, for a split second. We found ourselves in something worse than a slum. Run-down buildings littered the area, trash collecting on the streets. The sky overhead was dark, cluttered with pieces of building and rock.

As I glanced around, I recognized what could be apartment buildings, with balconies barricaded with rusted bars. Strange characters with emoticons stared down at us. I couldn't muster the courage to look at them any longer.

More than anything, this place was the result of an apocalypse.

"This is Net Slum," BlackRose mumbled in disbelief. Her eyes scanned over the wreckage.

"There are those who call it that. We call it Paradise," a nearby crouching player said. She had a TV for a head, which displayed static between different emoticons. Her voice was so calming. I wanted her to speak more.

"Where's Helba?" Kite asked. The character didn't reply. She only tilted her head downward and stared at the floor.

"I guess we'll ask around. Someone must know," Mistral suggested. "And honestly, I'm a little creeped out right now."

As we continued along, I started to agree with Mistral. Different damaged characters crowded the streets. Some didn't even look like regular characters.

One particular character was flat, spun around in circles, and was dressed in something that resembled a green poncho. "I don't know. I don't know. I really, really don't know," he repeated, followed with a high-pitched giggle.

Other responses when we tried to ask about Helba included, "Are you really awake right now? Don't bother pinching yourselves. Our dreams are very real." and, "The fake real and the real fake. Which is real?"

We finally came across a thin character holding a cane named Spiritas. On his face, he wore a gas mask. "The process of seeking the truth is perfected by repeatedly questioning yourselves. Isn't it similar to the process of making distilled liquor? I named myself from this reason. Before you ask for help, it is necessary to think for yourself. Hence, I do not have the intention of answering your question, 'Where is Helba?'"

BlackRose groaned in frustration. "We're getting nowhere with this! I doubt anyone here is capable of actual thought!"

As if on cue, a tiny old man walked out from the shadows. His head was covered in white hair and if his beard wasn't excessively long, his naked body would have been exposed to us. His hands clasped behind his hunched back, giving us the impression of him that he would break any moment.

"Are you looking for Helba?" he asked in a ragged voice.

"Yes, we are," Kite answered him.

"I'm Tartarga." The tiny old man scuffled between BlackRose and I, then turned to face us all. "I've heard from her recently. You wish to know about the _Epitaph of Twilight_. It tells how the Age of Spirits came to an end, but the texts are scattered. If they are found, they are very difficult to comprehend. Very tricky."

BlackRose glanced around nervously. "Hey, um, why do all the characters around here look so…weird?"

"This place was once where all the unsuccessful characters drifted. It's a junkyard-turned-sanctuary for failures, for the characters left behind when humans quit the game. People eventually stumbled here and found these creations amusing. They've since added their own variations to copy attributes of failed characters. Now the boundary between player and non-player characters is blurred. Some don't even know which category they fall into anymore. Only their character data remains as they wander the network."

Even though Tartarga's eyes were covered with facial hair, I knew he had been staring at me the entire time he talked. He knew, just as well as I did, that I was one of the failed characters he talked about: a roaming mass of data without a person behind the terminal.

"You share the same fate as Harald," he told me.

"Harald?"

A sudden voice, gentle and familiar, surrounded us from every direction. "I must speak with Morganna. To go where she is, the living flesh poses a hindrance. But I must. I must go. For our Aura. Emma, please, give me a little more courage." Helba floated down from the broken sky and gave a sly smirk in our direction. "They're the words of The World's creator, Harald Hoerwick. What brings you here?"

Kite took five minutes explaining the recent events we endured. While he spoke, I could still feel Tartarga's eyes on me, so I turned my attention to Mistral, who was trying (and failing) to strike up a conversation with the spinning, flat character, whose name I learned was Sconk.

"Rin? Rin!" BlackRose said, bringing me back to the conversation.

"Huh?" I replied, noticing that they were all looking at me. "I'm sorry, what?"

Helba only smiled and shook her head. "You've had a rough time." Slowly, her head tilted up. "It seems we have an unexpected guest. As a representative of Net Slum, I welcome you to Paradise!"

"Balmung!" Kite called out. My heart skipped a beat.

A wave of happiness and relief rushed over me, but when I turned around to look at him, that feeling vanished. He stood atop a ruined building, his eyes narrowed to a dangerous glare, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. In a quick graceful motion, his wings extended out and he glided down to the ground.

"I see you've sided with Lios," Helba said in an amused tone. "You cracked so easily for someone who was so sure of himself."

Balmung growled and pointed his sword toward her, the tip only inches from her throat. "Don't judge me! I'm not like you!" he yelled defensively.

"Shadowing, lying, and using your so-called 'loved one' is quite shameful, Balmung. You've disgraced the name of the Descendant of Fianna."

Balmung's eyes flashed to meet mine and his sword dropped. "Rin…"

"You…used us? Used _me?_" I realized that he had given Kite the Virus Core to break the protection of the area so he could follow us to Net Slum under Lios' orders. He was always constantly around me, secretly fishing for information to give back to Lios.

Everything, _everything_, was a lie.

"It was necessary to restore order." His eyes were dead. His voice was dead. He was nothing to me.

"Order?" Helba asked disbelievingly. "There's an order that The World desires and there's an order that _you_ desire. Which form should it take, Balmung?" She was angry. Helba, the calm and collected hacker, was legitimately upset.

"The order that I desire!" Lios' gruff voice boomed.

Although I couldn't take my eyes off Balmung, I knew Lios was floating behind us. The continuous entrance noise told me that he had brought his lackeys along with him.

I was so furious and so hurt. Actually, hurt was an understatement. Crushed. Destroyed. Ruined. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't find the tears. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't find my voice. I wanted to fight, but I couldn't find my body.

I felt as if I were falling into The World all over again.

"Our main actor has arrived," Helba announced. "We've all assembled!"

"You have disobeyed me for the final time. I will not allow you to pose a threat any longer. You will all now be deleted!" Lios said. Only then did I break my eye contact with Balmung.

When I saw Lios and his 10+ employees behind him, his hand was raised and I heard various keyboard clicking noises and static. He was actually going to try to delete us.

I had to steady my feet to the ground when everything began shaking. It felt as if there were an earthquake. I looked around, watching all the damaged characters warp out in a hurry. They were escaping.

"What did you do?!" Lios yelled at Helba, who only shrugged.

"This wasn't my doing. This was _her_ doing. It was appear that she doesn't care for us very much."

"Her?" Kite asked.

"Yes. Her. In other words, The World itself."

A harsh wind blew past us, causing me to fall onto my butt. Balmung's feet skidded back until his wings caught him. He looked at my frantically, holding out a hand.

"Rin!" he called.

_Are you kidding me? He's trying to help me now?_

"_FUCK YOU!_" I screamed to him just before he warped out. Just as quickly as Balmung left, Helba and Lios, along with the many CC Corp. employees, returned to wherever they came, leaving Mistral, Kite, BlackRose and me by ourselves.

In only a few short seconds, the wrecked buildings had disappeared and the ground beneath us turned to yellow hexes. Another phase. Another step closer.

The four of us gathered together and through the tears that blurred my vision, I saw what looked like a giant leaf, with smaller leaves branching off from it. Quickly, Mistral and I casted all the strengthening spells we had.

"Do you want to attack this time?" Mistral asked, gently grabbing my shoulders. "I know you probably have a lot of anger you need to get out right now."

I could only nod.

"This one is Magus," BlackRose whispered.

She dashed off to attack the monster, ignoring the fact that as Magus floated around the area, the smaller leaves were falling to the ground. When I realized that they could be destroyed, I took charge of getting rid of them.

However, no matter how rapidly I cast attack spells on them, I couldn't catch up and before I knew it, one of them had exploded, instantly killing BlackRose and throwing me back onto the ground. I rolled more times than I could keep track of and when I finally stopped, I was facing the very edge of the uncontrolled rock we were fighting on. It was almost as if I were about to fall off the side of the bed.

"Don't worry!" Mistral cried out, reviving BlackRose. She rushed to my side, kneeling next to me. "Are you okay? La Repth!"

I didn't feel wounded, but I knew I was. Before she cast her spell, I saw the gashes on my skin. I was still so angry that I couldn't feel any physical attacks.

_I guess something good did come from this…_

"Shit!" BlackRose yelled. Magus was regenerating the leaves. There was no end to this.

"BlackRose and Rin, you two take out those leaves! I'll go for the body!" Kite ordered.

As he told us, BlackRose and I focused on the small huge threats. Luckily, we were able to take them all out, then aim for the body to help Kite.

This monster seemed so much weaker than the two before it, aside from the killer leaves. The attacks it tried to use against us were easily avoidable and even if they did it, they didn't cause much damage. Or maybe it was because I was in the middle of an adrenaline rush.

"Focus!" BlackRose yelled to Kite when we heard the sound of glass shattering from Magus. Quickly, Kite raised his hand toward the creature.

_Why do they all turn into rocks? I don't understand…_

Like Skeith and Innis before, Magus turned into a rock formation, becoming stronger and quicker. We could hardly keep up with it and it wasn't even releasing the small leaves anymore. Mistral had to retire from her healing duties to help us attack and cast slowing spells on it.

With our unrelenting attacks, Magus was finished in a matter of ten minutes. It crumbled to the ground, creating a puddle of dark blood. The blood expanded until it covered all the ground, rebuilding Net Slum as it did. The ground was still rumbling like an earthquake.

"What the heck?!" Mistral yelled, agitatedly waving her staff around in the air. "We killed it, didn't we?!"

"Look!" BlackRose cried out, pointing toward the buildings. They were being sucked into the sky, along with parts of the ground we were standing on.

"We have to go now!" Kite yelled, taking us all back to Carmina Gadelica.

_What the…?_

We stood in silence, unsure of how to feel or what to say and think. I felt empty as I gazed upon the town.

Hideous data codes scarred the sky, the tall buildings, the brick walkway. The background music was distorted, broken with random static noises. The town was empty. Not even NPCs stood in the shops.

I did the only thing I could think of. I fell to my knees and screamed until my voice gave out.


	23. The Burden Of Broken Hearts

Shortly after our return to the unnatural Carmina Gadelica, my three teammates simultaneously logged out without so much as a "See ya later!"

So I searched for them, knowing full well they weren't still in the game. My thoughts were clouded and when I saw the status of the rest of the Root Towns, I felt nauseas and dizzy. Like Carmina Gadelica, the other towns were damaged beyond easy repair. Even the calming background music was distorted and at times, sounded as if it were being played backwards.

I didn't see a single player wandering the streets. I wondered what happened and why nobody was logging in.

_Maybe this is bigger than just in the game…_

Even the areas showed signs of intense infection. The skies were littered with data codes, the random structures were missing chucks in which I could see right through, and the Magic Portals haphazardly appeared, making exploring a dangerous task. I never knew when I would be attacked, so I stayed away from any place but the towns and the cathedral.

The cathedral was the only place that wasn't harmed, so for two days, I spent my time there alone with my thoughts. I tried to mostly sleep, but every time I tried when I wasn't tired, images of Balmung popped into my mind and I suddenly couldn't keep my eyes closed any longer.

Whenever I was worried or scared before, he would always show up. But now I realized I couldn't rely on him anymore. However, as angry and betrayed as I felt, I couldn't make myself hate him and I disliked myself for it.

I thought back to a particular conversation I had with him only a short time before we discovered Net Slum. I had asked him about his family and for a long time, he grew quiet, then finally, he opened up.

His parents were separated but not legally divorced. After his baby brother was born, the last of eight, his mother decided she couldn't handle a family any longer and took off in the middle of the night, leaving Balmung, as the oldest, and his father to look after all these children.

"We don't see my father much," Balmung had told me as he stoked my hair. "He works two jobs, comes home late and leaves early."

The sister closest in age to him, who was my age, dropped out of school to take on the mother role. She cooked, cleaned, and took care of the younger ones.

"I had planned to drop out, but my sister argued with me. Her grades were worse than mine were and I was closer to graduating, so she talked me into staying in. I honestly don't know how she does it. She's around them all day and all night, never stopping. The second I get home from school or work, I'm instantly exhausted. She's an amazing girl."

I couldn't help myself from feeling a little jealous, but at the same time, I pitied him and his family. They were stuck in a loop – working to pay bills and taking care of children, never ending.

I had asked Balmung how he even had time to play The World and he replied with, "To me, this game is my escape. If I didn't have The World, I'd go insane. This is the one place I could go where I was fully in control. At first, I signed up to be a tester for Fragment, the game before this one. I had no idea what I was doing. I was so young and I had never touched an online game before. But I kept going with it. When The World was released, I would play every time I heard my parents argue. And they didn't just disagree on something. They would yell and throw household items. So my sister and I would gather all our siblings into my room and we'd wait it out. While we did, I played The World. I apologize. I'm not really answering your question. When did I have time to play? Some days after school when I didn't have to work, I would go to an Internet café. Some days, I just didn't want to go home."

I sighed, leaning my head back on the statue in the cathedral. Two days with similar thoughts and all I wanted to do was talk to Balmung. But every time I thought about it, I was instantly filled with rage. I thought about Net Slum and my heart would shatter over and over again.

"Keiko?" a voice echoed.

"Rin?" another voice called.

I stood up and peeked around the statue. Katashi and BlackRose stood as silhouettes in the large doorway. My heart jumped and before I knew it, my arms were latched around my sister's neck.

"You're back!" was all I could say.

"The entire network has been down," BlackRose said as I transferred my desperate hug to her.

They spent the next hour informing me about the Minato Mirai emergency. All of the networking connections had gone down, including the public transit lines. BlackRose's father had been caught up in the mess. Fortunately, he made it home safely.

"He compared it to Pluto's Kiss," she muttered darkly.

"Has anyone talked to Kite?" I asked.

"I sent him an e-mail, but he hasn't replied."

The three of us decided on going to Carmina Gadelica, where we found Kite wandering the nearly empty streets. There weren't many players online. Most were too worried that the network would crash again.

"Hey!" BlackRose called out to him.

Kite turned and glanced up at us. His shoulders slumped and he just seemed generally defeated. "Hi," he muttered.

I noticed my sister stayed back near the Chaos Gate while BlackRose and I advanced toward him. BlackRose took the lead, but I saw her smile fade as we got closer. "Did you get my e-mail?"

"No, not yet."

"Oh, okay. It wasn't really anything important anyway."

An awkward silence fell on us until Kite sighed heavily and said, "I just don't know anymore. I don't know if what we're doing is the right thing anymore."

"Well, Kite," I said, trying to sound as gentle as I could, "it's a little too late to change your mind now."

"Yeah, but…" He trailed off. I wasn't sure what he was trying to tell us, but I knew it wasn't good.

"You can tell us. We're here for you."

Kite took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a long while, then said as quickly as he could, "Every time we think we're helping, something terrible happens. Maybe Balmung is right."

I snapped.

"No. Don't you fucking _dare _say that Balmung is right!" I yelled. "He's a lying asshole who has no idea what he's talking about! Why don't you stop for a moment and think about why we risk our lives every damn day with this stupid game and realize that we're the good guys here! Quit whining about it and cheer the fuck up!"

I stopped myself too late. Kite just stared at me and my mouth dropped at my own words.

"Kite, I—"

He logged out before I could apologize. I stared at the spot where he had been, then slowly turned to face BlackRose and my sister. BlackRose forced a smile and shrugged.

"Its okay. We're all a little on edge right now. I'm sure he understands," she told me.

"I hope so."

:-:-:-:

"Hey! I'm glad I found you!"

I turned around from the overlooking bridge in Mac Anu to smile at Mistral. "Hi."

Something about her seemed off. Instead of bouncing around like she normally was, she stood still until she grabbed for my hand. She led me around aimlessly before finally saying, "There's something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Is it more bad news? Because I don't think I can handle much more negativity."

She laughed for only a few seconds. I was expecting her long, outrageous laugh. "Well, yes and no. I may or may not have told you this before, but I'm a housewife. That's why I have so much time to play while my husband is at work. And, well…I'm pregnant."

I stopped walking, dragging her to a halt with me. "Mistral," I said in amazement. "That's great. Congratulations!" I felt a wonderful warm feeling inside of me, which was a good change from what I had been feeling for two days.

"Thank you, but I've decided to stop playing the game for a while. I've realized just how dangerous this all is and…I don't really think it's a good idea for me to keep playing."

_This is what must've gotten Kite to doubt what we're doing. Mistral probably told him before anyone else. _

As badly as that hurt me, I kept the smile on my face. "I understand," I told her. "Do what's best for your baby. Does BlackRose know?"

"Well, we're arranging a meeting soon. I want to tell her in person."

A twinge of jealousy hit me. Mistral and BlackRose were meeting in person. That meant Mistral was within reasonable distance of her, of me.

"I know what you're thinking. How could I meet with BlackRose without seeing you, right?" she added, as if reading my mind. I kept quiet. She laughed. "I've visited you at the hospital three times since we've met. It's a bit of a travel, so I haven't gone as much as I wanted to."

_Visited me? But how would she have known my name and which hospital? Oh, that's right. BlackRose…_

"You're a beautiful girl." Her tone changed. Suddenly, she was an entirely different Mistral. "You know, I always thought that when people fall into comas, they would look dead. You were just a Sleeping Beauty."

I smiled as she pulled me into a hug.

"I want to wish you good luck, but I know you won't need it."

:-:-:-:

I warped to the outside of the cathedral. No matter what was going on in The World, I felt completely safe here. But at the same time, I knew that this was also Balmung's haven.

"Oh, am I interrupting something?"

I had stumbled upon Kite and BlackRose. They were standing near Aura's statue. I knew they were talking about something and that something was possibly related to me because when they heard my voice, they instantly stopped talking.

"No, actually," BlackRose said, waving me over. "I was hoping you'd show up. I have a confession."

I sat on the nearest pew and folded my hands between my legs. "Okay."

She sat on the ground in front of me as Kite sat by my side. Anxiety rose in my gut. Something was wrong and they didn't want to tell me.

"My brother fell unconscious here," she blatantly said. "I never told you – either of you. I'm sorry. I just never found the right time." As she neared the end of her sentence, her voice was merely a whisper.

My heart crashed into my gut. I only stared at her, waiting for a "just kidding!" and a laugh, but the forlorn expression on her face struck me with the reality that that wasn't going to happen, no matter how hard I wished for it to.

"Remember that day I brought you two here? I wanted to see what had happened for myself. I was too scared to come alone. Then when I learned what had happened to you, Rin, I felt obligated to help you because I was the one who picked these keywords for my brother to go to. I guess what I'm trying to say is that when I started to know you, I wanted to help you because I genuinely cared about yours and Kite's safety. And if you two doubt yourselves and each other, then how am I supposed to hold us together? I'm only one person."

BlackRose was crying. Hiccupping sobs interrupted her words and her voice quivered. Aside from her sounds of sniffling, we sat in silence.

"How am I supposed to c-cope?" she finally asked us. "H-How is a big sister s-supposed to act when n-nothing is working out? D-D-Do I have to b-be happy all the time? I c-can't!"

"BlackRose," Kite muttered, "please don't cry."

"I'M NOT CRYING!" she exploded, standing to her feet. "You can't even see my face…"

That was true, but I imagined her face. Tear-filled eyes, red cheeks, mascara running. The image only made my feeling of heartbreak more painful.

Kite remained quiet. BlackRose chuckled to herself and turned her back to us. "There you go again," she murmured. "Clamming up when you should be talking."

"BlackRose," Kite said, standing to his feet, "I'm sorry. It was wrong of me to think that I'm the only one who is trying to fix the game and help all the coma victims. I realize now that I'm not. Everyone involved in this terrible incident has the world on their shoulders. Not just me."

Desperately, I grabbed for his hand and held it tightly. "You're not alone," I told him as I stood up.

He nodded to me. "What do we do about this situation? We do what we think is right, that's what. That's the only way we're going to be able to move forward."

"And we'll do this together," I added, grabbing BlackRose's hand with my free hand.

She smiled and in that moment, I think the three of us realized that the burden was not just one person's. We shared it as a team, as friends.


	24. Existence

"She really hasn't been around much lately. I'm not sure where she could be," Elk muttered, staring out into the endless sky below us. "I've checked all our usual areas, but I can't find her."

I'd found Elk in the new Root Town that had opened up on the Sigma server: Fort Ouph. If it hadn't been scarred by horrible fissures of data codes, it would have been a beautiful place. It floated above rose colored clouds and when I looked down from over a stone road, I couldn't see land below me.

Behind the shops on the corners of the map, green trees and bushes sprouted out from between the cracks of the stones.

"Maybe she just took a break from the game? Does she have a family or a job? Or maybe she's in school?" I suggested. I wasn't really sure what to tell him.

Elk shook his head, looking at his feet dangling in the sky. "Mia is always here, no matter what."

:-:-:-:

"Okay, so read it to me once more," I asked, sitting with my back against the wall. Kite nodded and sat next to me.

"'Humans have physical limits, but the AI has no limits to growth. I want to know where it will lead. I want to see what lies there. The ultimate AI makes mistakes just like humans. There is no growth without error. The difference is not to repeat the same mistake. Harald, this is a critical time. Earth is the womb of life and death, so the mother is both the goddess of life and death. Thus maternity has two sides: life and death. So was her manifestation a necessity? Morganna Mode Gone. She rejects my intervention.' I heard bits and pieces the further underground I went."

"Don't forget the new fragment you found," BlackRose added. She stood in front of us, her arms folded tight across her chest. She wore an uneasy frown on her face.

Kite nodded and I heard the sound of rustling papers. He took a loud breath and read, "'The whole cannot be changed. We have already lost that chance. Because the time left to us was short, we were mistaken in our path. But now do we realize, we should not change the whole, but the parts."

Ideas filled my brain as I watched BlackRose pace back and forth. They were trying to change something that was rapidly progressing.

_Maybe the growth progress of the AI?_

"I don't get it," BlackRose said, stopping to stare out into the infinite clouds. "Doesn't changing one part also change another? The 'whole' is how everything is connected together, like the beginning of a family tree. So changing a part, a 'child,' will also change everything after that. I don't even know if that makes sense. It just seems like this part of the _Epitaph_ seems different than all the other ones."

"I agree," I added. "Everything before seemed to go on one track. Now its completely different."

After a time, the three of us decided to dungeon crawl. The two of them were concerned with raising their levels, but when we walked closer to the Chaos Gate, we saw Wiseman's figure. He beckoned to us.

"I knew you three would be here," Wiseman told us. "I have business with you."

_Creepy…_

"With me?" Kite asked.

"There are five more Phases of the Wave, if things are proceeding according to the _Epitaph of Twilight._"

"Fidchell, Gorre, Macha, Tarvos, and…Corbenik, right?" BlackRose asked. Her words sounded like a foreign language to me. If the _Epitaph_ was actually originally written in German, which I had been told it was, then it definitely was another language.

"If we defeat them, then will it…" Kite's words trailed off as his eyes met mine.

Unfortunately, I knew the answer. I shook my head and replied, "There's still Cubia somewhere in this mess."

"Cubia," Wiseman repeated slowly, as if the name was twisting his tongue painfully. "According to the _Epitaph_, Cubia is named 'the concealed.' As for it's purpose, I'm at a loss."

"I wonder what sort of world Harald wanted to create with the _Epitaph,_" Kite thought aloud.

I suddenly found myself missing Mistral's random optimistic comments. I figured if she were here, things wouldn't seem so gloomy and serious.

"I have absolutely no clue. I'm going to give you this," Wiseman replied, extending his hand to Kite. "Put it to good use. We'll meet again."

Before we could ask any questions, Wiseman logged out.

With a defeated sigh, Kite muttered, "Virus Core."

"How does he get his hands on things like this?" BlackRose questioned, her voice rising in annoyance.

"That's probably something else we'll never truly learn the answer to."

After deciding on the fact that it was late, the two logged out and left me to my thoughts. I glanced around at the windy town, which was surprisingly crowded for the time of day.

"You haven't seen her yet, have you?"

The sudden voice caused a yelp to escape my mouth. After the jolt of surprise left my body, I turned to face Elk. "Oh, Elk," I muttered. "Seen who…? Oh, you mean Mia, right? I haven't seen her yet."

The look of disappointment he tried to hide from me nearly broke my heart. I was beginning to know how he was feeling. Having someone who was always around for you suddenly disappear, although the two situations were a little different, wasn't the best feeling in the world.

Before he could reply, I grabbed onto his hand and smiled. "Let's go look for her, okay?"

We ended up in Delta: Plenteous, Smiling, Hypha. The keywords seemed familiar to me. After a few minutes of repeating the words in my head as Elk and I battled through the field, I remembered that it was the same area Elk told me he had first met Mia in.

"This place is pretty low-leveled, isn't it?" I asked when we arrived to the dungeon's entrance.

"Yeah. Its easier to find Aromatic Grass in levels like this. Mia collects them."

We continued in an awkward silence. Elk searched every single part of the dungeon, aside from the small cracks that the invisible force wouldn't allow him in. So I offered to, squeezing myself between spaces in the walls and vines that sprouted from the ceilings. I expected him to question my ability to do such things, but he never did. Maybe Mia could do the same.

"Isn't it a little late for you to be up?" I asked, thinking back to Kite and BlackRose making comments about the time.

"I guess," he answered. "I'm always tired for school anyway, no matter what time I go to bed. So I don't think it matters. Besides, finding Mia is more important to me than school is."

_Elk must really love Mia…_

"I don't think you really understand where I'm coming from," he continued. "Mia is always nice to me and she's always there for me. She's the one person I can rely on."

I began to wonder how much Elk was bullied in school and if his parents paid any attention to him. I wanted to know and I wanted to, although I knew it was impossible to do from a game, help him from that situation.

Not knowing how to reply to his words, I fell back into my awkward silence. We battled through Magic Portals and searched every crevice of the dungeon. Finally, we found the Gott Statue, which I promptly crawled around in search of a feline figure.

"She isn't here," Elk said dejectedly.

"We can always search the entire field," I suggested desperately. I didn't want to be left alone with my thoughts again.

"I just have a feeling she isn't here at all," he replied. Before I could argue against him, he warped from the dungeon.

How could he have a feeling like that? Maybe the two of them had connected so much over the time they had spent together that something inside both of them clicked. It wasn't anything romantic, just a sign that they were meant to spend their days in The World together.

Because part of me didn't think Mia existed outside of the game at all.


	25. The Prophet

"So we're going. All four of us?" Wiseman asked, his gaze shifting between Kite and myself. We were waiting on BlackRose and she seemed to be taking her sweet time.

"It is a lot simpler than it seems," I replied, grabbing onto Kite's arm. "I just hold anyone's arm like this and I go with them. I don't have to deal with loading screens or anything."

Although he still seemed confused, Wiseman nodded. "I see," he probably lied.

"Hi! Hey – excuse me!" BlackRose called as she moved her way through a group of players. She wasn't the only one who noticed how annoyingly narrow the stone walkways were in Fort Ouph. "Have you all been waiting long?"

"Not particularly," Wiseman replied.

"You're coming too?"

"I've decided that it is time I experience this for myself. Rin and I have already worked out our battle strategy for duel Wavemasters."

While Kite put together the Virus Cores we needed to enter this area, Wiseman watched over the Twinblade's shoulder carefully. This type of area creation must have been entirely new to him. The way he watched Kite reminded me of children watching some dumb TV show.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" Helba's voice rang out around us as we arrived to Sigma: Turbulent, Distrusting, Ice Wall. I stared around at the falling snowflakes, but I couldn't see her.

"We can hear you," Kite answered her. His eyes were set directly ahead of us.

"All right," she replied. Somewhere in the distance, I think I heard the clacking of a keyboard. "The channel is good on this end, too. I would be severely annoyed if Lios caught on, so do hurry, won't you? I'll activate the jammer just before the battle."

The second her voice disappeared, Kite and Wiseman took off running. Confused and filled with questions, BlackRose and I followed.

"What's a jammer?" BlackRose asked before I could.

"If we assume that the source of this contamination is the 'abominable Wave' from the Epitaph, perhaps one way to keep the contamination from spreading is to run a jammer program to defend against growing viruses in areas where the Wave manifests itself," Wiseman replied.

Kite chuckled at the stunned expressions BlackRose and I wore. "In regular terms, a jammer is a program used to confuse the monster, if its here."

My heart dropped at the word "monster." I knew that meant another creature like Skeith or Cubia. Honestly, I wasn't sure which one I was hoping for more than the other.

As the snow crunched underneath my feet, images of Balmung popped into my head. For some unknown reason, areas with rain or snow reminded me of him. Maybe it was the color scheme, or the way I'd always felt so warm with him even when I knew I should be cold like the weather around us.

I shook my head, pushing him from my mind. This wasn't the time to reminisce on someone who was never truly there to begin with. Physically, he was, but emotionally…no.

"Rin, are you all right?" Wiseman asked, fortunately pulling me from my thoughts. I forced a smile and nodded.

As always, the dungeon contained what seemed like an endless amount of Magic Portals and rooms. Luckily, Wiseman had known to stock up on healing items because it took the two of us to help Kite and BlackRose with our attacking spells. Before we knew it, Wiseman had run out of SP and I was too busy trying to remember what monster was weak against a certain element to heal anyone.

"This must be it," Kite muttered as we arrived at the purple mist. Wiseman and I took the next few seconds casting strengthening spells on our teammates as well as ourselves.

"We don't really know how this thing will fight," I stated. "So, I suggest we move like how we did with Cubia. If it has a physical tolerance, Wiseman and I will attack while you two heal. If it has a magical tolerance, you two attack and we'll heal."

BlackRose chuckled and gave me a friendly push. "Look at you calling the shots."

Instantly, I felt my face heat up. "Oh, we don't have to," I replied quietly. "It was just a suggestion."

"I think it is a great strategy," Wiseman chimed in, casting his final spell. "You're a very talented Wavemaster, Rin, especially for someone in your _condition._"

I could've sworn my face was on fire at that point.

We pushed through, suddenly finding ourselves surrounded in darkness. The sound of static came in and out like waves. I covered my ears with my hands, closing my eyes tightly. This was always the worst part. I never knew what was going to come next.

"Rin."

I opened my eyes at the sound of Wiseman's voice, allowing my hands to drop to my side. We stood in the usual place we fought monsters like this: floating piece of earth surrounded by broken fragments of a cathedral of some sort.

On the other side of the rocky platform we stood on, a gigantic mask-like creature floated. It reminded me of an elephant, with an extension of it's body that curved like a trunk. Opposite of the trunk was a circular piece of it's body that haphazardly twisted in different directions.

"Launching program," Helba's voice rang out. "Audio and visual communication from this end will now cease functioning. The sound of static will signal the onset of battle. Good luck!"

We all exhaled at the same time when the sound of static hit us. Without saying anything to each other, we started running toward the monster.

"Oracle: Devil Quake," a deep and raspy voice said. It seemed to have come from the monster itself.

"It talked?!" BlackRose yelled, stopping in her tracks. It seemed to catch her off-guard.

"This is Fidchell: The Prophet," Wiseman explained, staring Fidchell down carefully.

"All will tremble under my terrible will," Fidchell bellowed.

As soon as it was finished speaking, the ground we stood on began to shake violently, throwing me to the ground. I landed hard on my side and watched as the ground cracked and quivered like the ocean. Over the sound of the trembles, I heard the constant beeping of low HP.

I grabbed for my staff to cast a healing spell, but as soon as I had a firm grip, a piece of earth shot up, bending my arm in a grotesque fashion. It suddenly felt as if my arm had been engulfed in flames. It had broken my arm.

Between my screams, hysterical giggles broke through. I had never broken a bone before. How ironic that my first time happened in a game?

"Pha Repth!" Wiseman's voice chanted.

The fire in my arm receded and was forced to bend back to it's normal posture. I scrambled to my feet grabbing my staff as I ran toward my party.

"Okay, okay!" I shouted, talking so quickly that I wasn't sure how they understood. "We need to distance ourselves from each other! Kite, BlackRose, you two go directly attack it. Wiseman and I will stand on opposite ends of each other and attack from a distance!"

Without asking any questions, we ran off in different directions. I think it may have confused Fidchell because it spun it's back around, trying to focus on only one of us at a time.

Roaring in frustration, it turned to Wiseman. The three of us watched in horror as a neon blue hexagonal shape appeared in front of the circle, raising Wiseman into the air.

"Rin, prepare healing spells!" Wiseman ordered, his voice lacking any sound of fear.

"R-Right!" I stuttered, holding on tightly to my staff. Not able to watch the attack, I turned my head as a data stream shot through Wiseman's body. With a heavy thud, his body hit the ground and I laid into him with every healing spell I could think of.

"You have my thanks," he told me, casting an ice spell on Fidchell.

We spent the next ten minutes running about, making sure to stay far from each other, as we attacked Fidchell. It never seemed to attack, until suddenly, it stopped moving and it's body shook slowly.

"Oracle: Ice Storm," it roared.

"Run!" BlackRose screamed, separating herself from Kite.

But before we could get far enough, Fidchell chanted, "All will freeze by the biting chills of my wrath."

Ice grabbed at my ankles. Losing my balance, I fell to the ground, watching as the painful element crawled it's way up my legs and my waist. I couldn't do anything except scream in pain and terror, slamming the tip of my staff against it in an attempt to break it away.

As I searched in desperation, I saw that my teammates were in the same position I was in: trapped in excruciating shackles of frost.

My plan had failed.

_So much for being a great Wavemaster._

"Flame Vortex!" Kite shouted, being close enough to Fidchell to attack. The sound of shattering glass echoed around us at the same exact time that the ice broke from around us.

"Now!" BlackRose yelled.

With a quick raise of his wrist, Kite's bracelet appeared, the light forcing my eyes shut. Standing in Fidchell's place after the attack was another rock formation with frayed pieces of cloth flapping from it.

Wiseman let out a sigh of amazement. "That's Data Drain…"

"We can't stop now!" I told him, unleashing fireballs onto Fidchell.

By the time we'd whittled Fidchell's HP down to 0, all four of us were panting. I was sweaty and dizzy, trying my hardest not to stumble as I ran toward Kite, avoiding stepping anywhere fear Fidchell's crumbling body. He seemed to be staring at his open palm.

"Kite?" I whispered, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I got a segment."

"A segment of Aura?"

"I think so."

The ground shook again with the same intensity as Fidchell's first attack. I yelped and grabbed onto Kite's arm, not wanting to be separated from him.

Louder than before, Fidchell's voice called from an unknown source, "Like a frenzied horse that is driven, an unseen wind of plague shrieks across the border. Pandemonium, wailing, and stench of carnage fills the air. There is no place to run, no hope of escape. Those who are mourned will never return. The hands of time cannot be turned back."

"A passage of the Epitaph," Wiseman murmured to himself.

"But what does it mean?" I asked. Instead of answering me, he shook his head in silence.

We returned to Fort Ouph in a hurry, eagerly looking around for any changes to the town because of our actions. However, everything seemed to stay the same.

"Nothing's changed, right?" BlackRose asked, touching one of the broken codes on the side of a shop. "Doesn't that mean we pulled it off?"

"I hope so…"


	26. Looks That Kill

For the next few weeks, my teammates seemed too busy with other things to explore dungeons with me, so I tagged along with my sister. As much as I didn't want to say it, it did put me in a foul mood.

Instead of being completely left in the dark, however, they did give me explanations. BlackRose was putting her foot down on studying because her grades were dropping well below her desired mark. Thankfully, she was also helping Tsukiko with her schoolwork.

Kite's explanation was a tad more confusing. He had told me he was leveling up with another player, but refused to tell me who.

"Rin!" BlackRose called from behind me. I turned to face her, waving her over.

"Long time, no see!" I replied. Instead of returning my smile, she stared at me with a frown.

"I got a message from Balmung," she said, her voice monotone. My heart dropped into my stomach.

_Balmung? What the hell does he want?_

"He told me that he wanted to talk to me," she continued. "He's at the Chaos Gate at Fort Ouph. You should come with me."

"I...I don't know if that's a very good idea." My palms instantly became sweaty and my knees felt shaky. The last thing I wanted to do was face Balmung. How long had it been since I had last saw him? A month? Two months? I couldn't remember. All I could remember was how angry and hurt I was.

"Please, Rin? I know he can't hurt me, but its not the same the other way around."

BlackRose was still livid with him as well, to the point of worrying for _his_ safety.

I sighed in defeat. "Okay, let's go."

We warped to Fort Ouph only to face Kite. He seemed to be waiting.

"Oh, hey," he greeted us with a small wave.

"Hey," BlackRose replied. "So, I got this weird message from Balmung saying he wanted to meet me here. Did you get the same one?"

"No, but…" His eyes moved to meet mine and he said slowly, "He's on our side now."

"No," I told him. "Absolutely not."

"Why not?" Kite defended. "Balmung apologized to me and explained to me why he did what he—"

"I don't care," I interjected, noting that his eyes had strayed from mine to something behind me. "I don't care what his fucking excuse is. He's working for Lios, against us. He made that perfectly clear. I don't want him near me. I can't even think about him anymore without wanting to punch a fucking wall. I hate him, Kite, I really, really…" Turning to follow the object of Kite's gaze, I stared Balmung in the eyes. "…hate you."

The moment those words came from my mouth, I wanted to grab them and take them back, hiding them away inside myself like I'd been doing for the past couple months. Balmung nodded slowly, not breaking his eye contact with me.

"I understand," he muttered. "I know you do. I'm not upset about it. I'm just…sorry."

"Balmung…"

He turned to BlackRose and bowed slightly. "And I apologize for my actions to you as well, BlackRose."

BlackRose didn't respond. She just looked between myself and Balmung, unsure of what to say.

"Look," Kite started, putting his hands up. "I know this is probably the worst way to join forces, but I've been talking with Balmung since before our fight with Fidchell. There is a reason why he did what he did. And I now he doesn't need me to defend his case, but I trust him."

I struggled to open my mouth to say something, anything, but when I did, the roaring sound of static flew through the town. BlackRose, Balmung, and I flinched and frantically looked around for any cause of the noise, but Kite seemed to pay no attention to it.

"Aura," he said simply. "She's waiting for us."

"What are you talking about?" I demanded to know.

"Aura said she's waiting at Lambda: Merciless, Grieving, Furnace."

"She wants that segment."

"Segment?" Balmung repeated.

"We can explain on the way," BlackRose offered.

The four of us wasted no time warping to Carmina Gadelica and then the area. As Kite explained the recent events up until this point, I made sure to keep my distance from Balmung.

It wasn't as if I was unhappy that he was on our side. Actually, I was relieved. Still a little suspicious, but relieved. I was allowing my own personal feelings to get in the way of our goal. If Balmung wanted to help, then so be it, but I wanted nothing to do with him other than a teammate.

With Balmung's help, we were able to reach the bottom floor of the dungeon with ease. In an empty hallway we glanced around, looking for signs of anything.

"There's nothing here…"

As if on cue, the space before us quivered, forming Aura's body. A red sphere shot out from Kite's chest, floating up to meet the girl. Unlike the past time we had met her in a dungeon, she looked alive. Her eyes settled on us and as her mouth opened to speak, a familiar horrifying roar cut her off.

Cerulean tree roots shot up from the ground, the walls collapsed, and the dirt underneath our feet turned into the circular area we'd fought Cubia on before.

"Wait!" Kite called out to Aura. She looked around frantically before disappearing in the darkness behind her.

"What's going on?!" Balmung demanded to know. Although he tried to sound confident, the shaking in his voice gave obvious hint to how nervous he was.

"If it has a magical tolerance, use physical attacks! If physical tolerance, use magic!" I told him, suggesting the same strategy we had used for Fidchell.

When Cubia appeared, I covered my mouth to hide my heavy breathing. It was so much bigger than before.

_This thing is growing…_

"Can we defeat _that_?!" Balmung asked, grabbing the hilt of his blade.

"If we don't it'll kill us!" I reminded him.

For the first time since we met in Fort Ouph, we made eye contact. I was half expecting to become instantly infuriated again, but when I saw how scared he was, although he was trying his hardest to hide it from me, I couldn't feel that way. I had to rely on him to stay alive, just as he had to rely on me.

"It'll be okay," I told him, forcing a (hopefully) reassuring smile onto my face.

Cubia's roar sent the Gomoras out into battle. Before anyone suffered any damage, I used what precious time I had to cast strengthening spells on everyone. Finally, after about ten seconds, the Cubia Core appeared behind the Gomoras. As Kite attempted to land a physical hit on it, a barrier shot up, blocking the attack.

"OrmeAni Kruz!"

"OrRue Rom!"

"RaJuk Zot!"

I held my staff above my head and shouted, "Yarthkins Ch!" Behind me, I heard the roar of the Earth god as large boulders were thrown at the Cubia Core.

An emerald light surrounded the Cubia Core, restoring a portion of it's HP. Balmung targeted the responsible Gomora and began hacking away at it. However, for every one he defeated, two more appeared in it's place. He let out a loud growl of frustration.

Suddenly, all the enemies except Cubia itself disappeared. Rearing it's head back, it cried out deafeningly. The roots below us grew overhead in the blink of an eye and before we knew it, slammed into the disc we were standing on.

I stumbled back to avoid them, but in the process I lost my footing, sending my body tumbling over the edge and into the vast emptiness below us. The ear-piercing scream I let out could've shattered glass.

Turning my body, I stared down at my fate: a never ending fall. I closed my eyes tightly, wishing to be scared to death. At least that way, I wouldn't have to suffer.

A body collided with mine, arms wrapping tightly around me.

"It's okay, it's okay," Balmung breathed in my ear. "I've got you."

I wrapped my arms around his neck, holding myself as close as possible to him. "I'm sorry," I whispered between hiccupping sobs. "I-I'm heavy."

His chest rumbled with laughter. "I don't know," he said, taking a breath from his chuckling, "if I'm hysterical right now or if I actually think that's funny."

_I don't care…It just feels good to hear your laughter again._

As Balmung's wings carried us back up to our teammates, I wiped my tears with the backs of my hands. A faint beeping noise grew louder as we neared them, so the first thing I did as soon as we landed on solid ground was cast a healing spell.

We arrived just in time to save BlackRose from death and watch Kite deliver the final blow. Setting her eyes on me, the Heavyblade ran to me and wrapped her arms around me. I could hear sniffling through her FMD.

Cubia's final roar shook us to the point of throwing the four of us to our feet. Just like it had before, it glanced around for someone of an escape before fleeing.

"Hey," BlackRose muttered, breaking our silence. "What if that thing…Cubia, is trying to stop you from talking to Aura?" All eyes settled on Kite.

"Stop me from talking to her? Why?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. It just seems like it, you know? Every time we find her, Cubia is right behind her, but it always runs away. I don't understand that part."

"Maybe Cubia is stalling for time," Balmung suggested.

"Maybe," I muttered, pressing my palm to the disc. "It's definitely getting stronger, though."

Kite stood up. "I think you're right. At this rate, we won't be able to fight it separately anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"We may need Lios' help."

"Why?!" BlackRose and I yelled simultaneously.

I already didn't trust Balmung. The idea of adding Lios to our team made me even more uneasy.

"I was just thinking that maybe he could lend us a hand. Its his job to keep this game running smoothly, so I think our objectives would be the same."

After a long time, Balmung added, "I agree with you, Kite."

"Yeah, you would, traitor," I snapped.

The look we shot at each other could kill, if that were possible.

BlackRose sighed annoyingly. "Lios is hardheaded. I don't think he'll be willing to help us on his own terms."

"The problem is," Kite said, clearing his throat, "Helba."

"I'll handle it!" BlackRose offered, joining Kite to her feet. "I'll call them together and I'll be in touch with you all."

"How are you going to do that?"

Giving a confident smirk, she answered, "I've got the woman's touch. Just leave it to me."

:-:-:-:

"So, I guess we just wait for BlackRose," Kite said when we arrived back at Carmina Gadelica. "I'm going to go now. You two…try not to kill each other, please." Although he was joking, I could sense a small hint of seriousness in his tone.

Once Balmung and I were left alone, I turned my back to him and brought up the keyword screen at the Chaos Gate.

"See ya," I told him.

"Can we talk?"

I sighed, looking at him from over my shoulder. "Look," I told him, "I appreciate the fact that you saved my ass, but it doesn't change anything."

He moved around me, pressing his palm onto the screen. "I have an explanation."

"I don't care." Before he had the chance to see what keywords I randomly picked, I warped to the area.

A forest extended around me. Digital bugs chirped and a soft breeze ruffled my hair about.

Wrapping my arms around myself, I sat back against my heels. Then suddenly, I felt as if all my emotions exploded all at once. The fear of falling to my death, the heartbreak of seeing Balmung's face again, the pain of betrayal replaying over and over again in my head.

All I could do was scream until there wasn't anything left.


	27. The Rest Of My Life

"So let me see if I understand this," I said, pressing my fingers to my temples. My head was pounding. I hadn't had such a horrible headache in a long time.

Kite stood in front of me patiently. We'd been waiting for BlackRose in Carmina Gadelica for what seemed like hours.

"The reason why Balmung," I started, his name making my voice strain, "did what he did was because of me?"

Kite nodded. "You weren't completely listening, were you?"

"I spaced out after you said it was because of me."

Chuckling, Kite sat against the small wall that separated us from the water below. He patted the spot next to him. As I sat next to him, he explained once more.

"Like I said, I found Balmung fighting a monster on his own in a dungeon before we fought Fidchell. After I helped him, we both explained our intentions and ultimately decided that fighting against each other wasn't helping anyone. We parted ways and met again a few days later. We cleared out a few dungeons together so we could understand each other's fighting styles and suddenly, we just began talking about it. He said that at first, he argued with Lios and refused to help him, until Lios said that he would—"

"Sorry we're late!" BlackRose yelled as she appeared in the middle of golden rings. Standing beside her was Balmung, who gave a small wave.

Kite chuckled at me as we stood up. "So, off to Net Slum, right? And you're sure they're going to come?" he asked BlackRose. She feigned an offended expression.

"I planned this out for hours! I even had to work with Balmung on it! Our plan is perfect. You just need to trust us!"

As Kite turned to the Chaos Gate, I gripped onto his clothing. An awkward aura fell over Balmung, BlackRose and I, and part of me wished someone would break the silence. I avoided eye contact with Balmung, pretending I was watching some players run by in the distance. Counting down in my head, I snuck a quick glimpse at Balmung. He seemed to be avoiding my eye contact as well.

_This is going to be so uncomfortable…_

"We're in," Kite suddenly announced.

I'd felt as if I'd only blinked during the travel to Net Slum. Before I knew it, we were standing in the rubble of buildings and characters alike. We took our time wandering about, greeting the bodies that inhabited the area until a voice sounded from behind us.

"You're planning on contacting Helba?" Lios asked with a snort. "Whatever you're up to, I'm going to put a stop to it. I've already deleted the post."

Balmung and BlackRose both simultaneously rolled their eyes as we turned to face Lios. That must've been how they were able to get Helba's attention, if they did at all.

"The hackers are having a great laugh right now! They find the current state of affairs to be quite amusing. What are you planning with them?! Tell me!" he demanded, raising an angry fist.

Giving an annoyed sigh, Kite spoke up, "Don't you know by now that the problems have nothing to do with Helba?"

"What do _you_ know?! You think that bracelet makes you a hero? Don't make me laugh! You're all nothing but a bunch of stupid kids who know nothing about restoring the game! But I will tell you one thing, that cursed piece of trash jewelry will have nothing to do with the restoration!"

"Listen to yourself," Balmung said, taking a step toward him. "That isn't what we think at all. If we are truly a bunch of stupid kids who know nothing about this, then why are you the one who can't understand that joining forces may be the only way we can fix The World?"

"I will not work with hackers."

I let out a frustrated groan. "God, its like we're going around in circles with you."

"You're such a pig-head! You're making me want to punch your head open!" BlackRose threatened.

"If he weren't so hard-headed, I would've done that long ago," a feminine voice said from behind us. Helba floated around, facing Lios with a disgusted frown planted on her face.

"How did you—" Lios started. Fortunately, she cut him off.

"A deleted post is so meaningful, fraught with significance. I can't believe you really thought I couldn't get to that post, Lios. Deleting messages that could point toward the truth? How shameful of you. Even a pig-head like you can't be entirely ignorant of what's going on around here, can you?"

"Stop calling me that!"

"Then prove to us that you're not a pig-head," Kite demanded, folding his arms over his chest the same way Lios did.

"WHAT?!"

"There are people suffering while you're arguing with us," I reminded him. "Are you really going to be that selfish?"

Lios stared Kite down for a moment, then moved his piercing glare to BlackRose, Balmung, myself, and finally Helba. Without realizing it, we had all crossed our arms over our chests. It was more for defense than anything, although I knew Lios wouldn't try anything. It would be five against one. He had no chance.

"Fine," he finally said. "If it'll get you damn brats off my back, I'll work with you. I only have one condition. I want you to prove how serious you are about this by obtaining a Virus Core from the dungeon in Sigma: Sorrowful, Sweltering, Arena."

"That's all?" BlackRose and I asked at the same time.

"Will you two shut up for a moment? I'm not finished. I want you to retrieve the Virus Core _without_ using Data Drain. That is the only way I will joined forces with Helba."

I could almost hear the tension in the air rise. BlackRose tilted her head to the side, Balmung narrowed his eyes, Helba smirked with amusement, my mouth fell open, but Kite only stared at Lios as if he hadn't said anything. There was no way we could do this without Data Drain.

"We can't!" BlackRose yelled, waving her arms about in the air. "What if a Data Bug shows up?! We wouldn't be able to defeat it!"

"Fine, we'll do it," Kite calmly responded, receiving the worst look I'd ever seen BlackRose give someone.

"What kind of drugs are you on?!" she screamed. Beside me, Balmung chuckled.

"If we do it, you'll work with Helba. That's the only way you'll do it, right?" Kite questioned Lios, turning his back to BlackRose. Surely, it angered her even more. Lios' only reply was a quick nod.

"Getting through to this idiot is nearly impossible," Helba commented, turning her back to leave the crowding place. "Show him you aren't playing around."

:-:-:-:

The instant we warped into the area, a gnawing uncomfortable feeling settled itself into my gut. I'm sure my teammates felt the same way. Kite and BlackRose remained silent, which was unusual for them. Normally, one of them would comment on the landscape of the area.

Balmung's facial expression gave away his nervousness. He glanced around distressingly as he chewed on the inside of his cheek. When he met my stare, he forced a smile onto his face.

_Everything is going to be okay…_

We proceeded through the area and dungeon in silence. The only time we ever spoke was to cast spells or attacks.

Everything seemed to happen in a daze. The way everyone moved seemed rigid but graceful at the same time. I kept most of my attention on Balmung, healing him at every chance I could get.

With every step we took, my heartbeat echoed in my ears. Every floor added onto the gut feeling that we should turn around and run. That feeling was validated when we reached the bottom floor.

"I _knew_ there would be one here!" BlackRose yelled very matter-of-factly. The three of us shot her a round of glares before advancing toward the Data Bug.

The monster, a large skeleton forced on all fours (well, it seemed to be missing bones starting at the waist), roared as we came closer. As soon as we were within range to attack it, it lifted a paw to swipe at Balmung. Instead of being smacked with all the force, Balmung quickly grabbed his blade and held off the attack.

I decided to stay far from the monster to heal and occasionally throw in attacking spells. Keeping a close eye on my teammates' health, I also watched the monster's health. Instead of staying completely green like all the other Data Bugs before it, the bar was slowly turning red and the numbers were depleting.

_That's weird…_

Before I could realize it, the monster had stomped it's feet, causing skulls surrounded by a violet mist to appear above the three.

"Watch out!" I called, pointing the tip of my staff toward the Data Bug. "GiRai Rom!"

Beneath the monster, a bright yellow tornado formed. Lightening shot from the whirlwind, piercing the monster in various points of it's body. It bellowed loudly, turning toward me. It's own attack stopped short as it began to clamber toward me.

I turned short on my feet, sprinting away from it. Turning my head, I saw the monster right on my heels with my teammates hacking away at it. With every blow is suffered, it seemed to become faster until suddenly, it fell to the ground in a pile of hexagonal shapes.

"What the heck?" BlackRose asked, kicking the body with her left foot. "Data Bugs don't normally die like this."

"Why didn't you use Data Drain?" Lios' voice asked from behind us. "You don't care if you become comatose?"

The irony was so obvious that I didn't even hold back a short laugh.

"You're the one who told us not to use it!" BlackRose yelled, pointing an accusing finger. "Besides, we've fought way tougher monsters than that puny thing!"

"Lios knows," Kite added.

"What?" Balmung, BlackRose, and I asked in unison. Everyone's eyes settled on Lios' guilty face.

"He watched us fight Cubia."

"I know nothing of that!" Lios defended. We were beginning to realize when he was lying. His voice quivered and he spoke more quickly. "That Data Bug was merely an intimidation I created."

"I knew that was the case," Kite responded. "You wouldn't truly harm this game. It goes against your job."

"So, in other words, you lose," Helba announced as she warped in behind us. I sighed quietly. Part of me felt that her presence wouldn't make this situation any better.

"Of course I did! You don't need to point it out!"

"Not that I believe it will truly get through that thick skull of yours," Helba lulled on, her voice giving a hint of boredom, "I want you to know that the higher-ups at CC Corp. are beginning to notice your little...problem. They are beginning to take actions against it."

"Actions against it?" Balmung asked. "What does that mean?"

Helba's head shook slowly. "Deletion of 'broken areas' and 'broken characters.' In other words, your characters. The ones who have no player behind them any longer. They don't want to take the blame for comatose players, so they're willing to cover up any evidence."

Although I knew the answer and didn't particularly feel like hearing someone say it, I asked, "What happens if we get deleted?"

"You die," Lios answered darkly.

Balmung exhaled as if someone had punched him in the gut. That's what it felt like, anyway. My mouth tasted dry and my legs seemed weak. I just wanted to sit down and curl into a ball.

This meant either we had a limited amount of time to restore the game or Lios had to work his magic within the company. He had to be willing to do something like that first.

"It won't help anything," Kite added. "It won't stop the virus from getting around the network."

"It doesn't matter to those idiots," Helba told him, pointing toward Lios. "All CC Corp. concerns themselves with is their public image."

We turned to Lios, who obviously didn't enjoy being put on the spot. He grumbled under his breath, turning his head away from us.

"There are lives on the line, Lios," Kite told him. "I held up my part of the deal. Now you need to do the same."

"Goddammit, fine!" Lios barked. "I'll work with you! Now leave me the hell alone!"

Like a pouting child, he ran away.

:-:-:-:

"It feels strange," Balmung muttered, looking over the short wall outside of the cathedral. The clouds below us seemed to eventually form into water. If the designers were looking for a depressing lake, they certainly did a great job.

"What does?" I asked.

For the past hour or so, we had stood in silence, both lost in our own thoughts. So many things were cramming into my head at once that a headache was coming on. Lios, my body, dying, my sister, my parents, Balmung, his siblings, his father, everything.

"Knowing that Lios isn't working against us anymore. It's a relief to have someone on the inside of the company."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "He was on your side the enti—"

"Stop."

Balmung's sudden change in tone startled me. First, he sounded calm and distant. The single word forced his character to a harsh tornado.

I stared up at his face as he refused to look at me. He only stared forward at the cluster of data that formed a mountain. It seemed miles away.

"You still don't understand," he continued, his hands doubling into fists on top of the wall. His knuckles were white. "I didn't realize I was being taken advantage of the entire time. Lios and I had an agreement. As long as I could supply him with information from you, he promised he would get you out of this game."

"But he didn't have the power to do that," I finished for him. Balmung didn't say anything else.

_It was for me. That's why he did it. It was never to hurt me. It was the opposite…_

"I'm sorry," I whispered, feeling entirely embarrassed and disgraced. "I didn't know."

"There was no way you could have known."

Counting down from three in my head, I place my hand on top of his. My heart instantly began to hurt.

"Thank you for doing what you did. I really appreciate it. But to be honest with you," I told him, wrapping my fingers around his, "I don't want to leave this place without you."

Only then did he look at me. For the first time in months, his lips impressed onto mine and I swear in that moment, I was content with staying in The World for the rest of my life.


	28. The Real World

"I can't shake this feeling that I'm going to wake up in my bedroom to my annoying alarm," Balmung explained as we gathered in Net Slum. BlackRose, Wiseman, Helba, and Lios sat with us, although Lios made it a point to distance himself from the rest of us.

The inhabitants of Net Slum seemed interested in our gathering, but stayed far from us. Some made it obvious that they were eavesdropping, as they repeated random words we spoke. The mobile ones would wander back and forth near our group, whispering responses to themselves.

"Do you feel the same, Rin?" Helba asked me. She had been curious about the thoughts that ran through my head, as well as Balmung's, and now that she had the chance to ask, the three questions turned into fourteen and fourteen turned into thirty-one.

"Yeah," I replied, wrapping my arms around my knees to pull them closer. The wall behind me felt hard and uncomfortable, but no matter how many times I adjusted my weight, it remained the same.

"And do you two ever experience suicidal thoughts when you wake up away from your bedrooms?" she questioned.

I glanced at Balmung, who returned the same. Those feelings were once very strong, but it was mostly when I was alone when we first became trapped in the game. I felt terrified and lost, but The World slowly felt more and more like home as the days went on.

"Not anymore," we both answered simultaneously.

Thankfully, Kite appeared beneath the Shinto gate. "Sorry it took me so long," he apologized, panting between words. "Class ran late."

"Better late than never," Wiseman replied, speaking up for the first time since Balmung and I arrived. "I'm going to assume you've read the e-mail I sent you. I've already explained the basic outline to Rin and Balmung, see as their condition restricts e-mail access."

The basic outlined he mentioned was a new strategy to hold the Wave down. Instead of using the jammer program from before in one specific area, we would use it anywhere we could find signs of the Wave.

"During this investigation, Lios will research the 'abominable Wave' with his employees," Helba explained, waving Lios over with her hand. "With what Lios finds out, Wiseman will gather and analyze the data presented to him. Kite, you will lead your team against the Wave itself. Rin and Balmung, as part of Kite's team, you two will act as bait."

Balmung took a step forward. "Bait?" he repeated. "What do you mean?"

Giving an annoyed sigh, Lios cleared his throat. "There is a…certain code within your characters. When you two were first Data Drained and brought into the game, it was written in with the rest of your regular code. It doesn't necessarily draw the Wave to you, but we can rewrite it to do so, as long as Kite and his bracelet are not present."

It didn't make sense to me. A special code in us, in our build of 1's and 0's? How could something like that draw the Wave to us? And even if something like that did exist, why would we _want_ to be used as bait?

I opened my mouth to object, but Wiseman beat me to the punch. "Specific targets have not been determined. As soon as they are, we will proceed with the operation. I will keep everyone informed. Dismissed."

Kite placed a hand on my shoulder, giving a reassuring smile. "It'll be fine," he told me before leaving with BlackRose.

"Shall we begin?" Helba asked, motioning Balmung and I over.

"No," he replied, grabbing my hand. "You haven't given us any information about what you're doing to us."

"I understand your concern," she replied, feigning thoughtfulness, "but nothing harmful will come your way. Think of it as a minor surgery. You'll be unconscious while Lios rewrites your code. It will only take a few moments."

As much as I wanted to believe her words were true, I didn't feel comfortable with Lios performing in my character. What if something were to go wrong? Would I die? Would he try to kill me on purpose?

I looked up at Balmung, who stared hard at Lios. He was probably thinking the same thing I was. When he closed his eyes and inhaled, my heart dropped.

"I'll go first," he suggested.

"It will go faster if we do both of you at the same time."

"I can perform on you, Rin. Lios can take Balmung. Or visa versa if it makes you feel more comfortable."

Almost on cue, Balmung, Lios, and I gave her a disapproving look. We were all aware that neither of us wanted Lios to even touch us. Even so, Balmung decided to give himself to Lios.

We were advised to lie down as not to slam our heads when the process started. As I stared up at the orange sky, I tried to keep my breathing calm. My nerves twisted my stomach into knots. Turning my head, I saw that Balmung had his eyes shut tightly.

"Be sure not to touch each other. I don't want any screw ups," Lios warned.

My body began to tingle and just before I slipped away, I heard Balmung say as he grabbed my hand, "Idiot."

The sensation of falling overtook me. I tried to move my fingers, but they weren't there. My body wasn't there, but I knew I was falling from existence. I tried to remember my name. Was it Rin or Keiko? I couldn't remember anymore. They both seemed right.

"SATOSHI!"

It was as if I had blinked. Suddenly, I was in a house, crowded by children. I had a body again, but I wasn't sure if it was Rin's or Keiko's. It was naked, but it was mine. Finally.

The house was undersized. Or at least, it seemed that way. It could have been the multitude of bodies. I tried to cover myself with my arms, but I gave up when I realized nobody was paying any attention to me. A baby cried from a crib nestled in a corner. A blond boy who seemed to be about ten rushed over to it, took it in his arms, and began bouncing it softly, a low hum coming from his throat.

The other children screamed and ran past me. I tried to shrink out of their way until I realized they were running right through me, as if I wasn't even there.

I counted four, but before I could count any more, they all ran down a narrow hallway lined with pictures. I didn't recognize anyone in them. They were school pictures, camping pictures, posed pictures. Every single one of them wore the same smile. Family photos.

"STOP IT, YOU TWO!" a frantic woman screeched. I followed the children, who were eventually held back by an older girl who held light in her eyes in the pictures. Tears ran from them now.

I walked through her body to find myself standing in front of two boys on the floor, punching and kicking each other. The older boy, who looked about fifteen, had blood trickling from his nose. His azure eyes stared at the younger one with a strange sort of animosity I had seen once before.

_Where have I seen that?_

"_STOP!_" a booming male's voice rumbled from right behind me. I yelped and covered my ears, my gaze following a bulky man walk through me. Thick black hair covered his head

In a quick motion, he grabbed the two boys and tossed the younger one to the side. He yanked the older one close to his face and slapped his cheek hard.

"Have you lost your fucking mind?!" he yelled, sending drops of spit into the boy's reddened face.

"I was angry."

_Balmung…_

I thought the voice had come from the boy's mouth, but instead, the source stood behind me. I turned to face a man - an older, naked version of the boy who had just been slapped. His black hair stuck up messily, as if he had been sleeping. His eyes, a deep cerulean tone, looked past me onto the scene.

"Balm—Satoshi," I muttered, taking a step closer.

Balmung's eyes finally met mine, but it still didn't feel like he was looking at me. "I was angry," he repeated. As he turned and walked back toward the living room, I hurried after him. "I'm not that way anymore."

"Wait!" I called, following him out the front door.

Before I could realize it, we were standing in my old bedroom. I recognized the pink bedspread, the pink curtains, and the pink walls. Stuffed animals cluttered the bed, some falling onto the floor. A few had even been kicked underneath and forgotten.

_Yeesh, I had a problem…_

Soft crying sounded from the closet. Balmung peeked at me, his eyes finally recognizing who I was, and before I could stop him, he moved to the door and swung it open.

I sat curled in the darkness, clutching a sleeping baby Tsukiko clumsily in my arms. Or rather, my eight-year-old self.

Balmung watched my younger self cry for a few more seconds before the yelling downstairs began. A feeling of nostalgia settled over me. He turned around to stare at me, his piercing eyes demanding to know what was going on.

"My parents," I mouthed.

The sound of glass shattering, a loud bang, and a slap. I closed my eyes, wishing I was somewhere else. I had practiced this since before my sister was born, but it never truly worked. I could never figure out how to transport myself to another place.

"Mommy, Daddy, stop fighting!" the tiny girl in the closet sobbed. Tsukiko awoke, throwing herself into hysterical crying.

Balmung stood and stormed from my bedroom. I called after him, running to catch up. I nearly fell down the stairs after him, but slammed into his bare back before I could topple over.

"What's going on?" he whispered, staring into what was supposed to be my kitchen.

"What the hell?" I replied.

Before us was an expanded sight of broken pieces of my memories, and I only guessed the same of Balmung's. I recognized teacher's faces, the seats of an airport, a boy who I had a crush on two years back, who ultimately rejected me. The parts I didn't recognize included motorcycles, school books, and a naked girl that I'd never seen before. Blonde hair toppled down over her petite shoulders and her emerald eyes stared at me. She had perfectly straight teeth that bit down on her bottom lip. Her slender fingers traced down her stomach and finally to areas I was too uncomfortable to look at.

"She doesn't matter anymore," Balmung muttered hatefully.

Thankfully, Helba's voice roared around us. "Nearly finished. Don't lose your minds."

"I think its too late for that," he muttered, giving me a small grin. I'm sure my face instantly turned crimson. I couldn't decide who pulled off that smile better, Balmung or Satoshi?

Turning my back to the unknown woman, I covered my breasts with my arm. "Um, so, this isn't awkward or anything, right?" I muttered, settling my gaze on a Ferris wheel behind Balmung.

"Why would it be?"

"Just…you know, we're naked."

His laughter brought my eyes to him. A faint tint of red kissed his cheeks. "Tell me, Rin. What do you think is going to happen when we finally escape from this game?"

The question caught me off-guard. It wasn't something I'd ever really thought much of. I knew that I couldn't just go back to my normal life as soon as I got back. I would have to be homeschooled or repeat my last year. My father wouldn't just act like nothing happened. If anything, I wouldn't be able to do anything because he would be too afraid I'd fall into a dangerous situation again.

_But Balmung…You and I…_

"I've never really…thought about it, I guess," I answered truthfully. "I'd always just figured it would be you and I here forever."

"Well I, personally, would like to find you and formally introduce myself," he said, grabbing for my hand, "and get you to fall in love with me."

I couldn't help but laugh. "That is the cheesiest thing you've ever said to me," I told him, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

"But its making you fall in love with me, right?" he asked jokingly.

Lifting myself up on my toes, I grabbed his free hand, allowing myself to be completely exposed. I expected his eyes to stagger from mine. Like always, I was proved wrong.

"I already have," I replied, finally pressing my lips to his.


	29. The Machinator

"Don't even try to talk me out of this, Keiko," my sister told me for the second time, holding her hands up in defense. "I'm coming and nothing you say is going to change my mind."

From underneath the shrine arches not too far away, Balmung and Wiseman desperately tried to strike up a conversation as not to eavesdrop on our bickering. The residents of Net Slum, however, made themselves very obvious. They had an annoying habit of it. One tiny character even stood between us. It was so short that at first, I didn't even realize it was standing there, nodding in agreement with both of us.

"Besides," she continued, "I was invited by Wiseman, too. So don't think I'm here just to bother everyone."

"Oh, Wiseman invited you, knowing full well the dangers we could face?" I asked, raising my voice so the Wavemaster could hear. Nervously, he turned his back to me, asking Balmung something about motorcycle parts.

"Look, I get it; you're worried I might end up like you. But I've been through dangerous stuff in this game, even things I never told you about. And we have Kite and the bracelet, so we'll be fine."

Her blind optimism began to irritate me. I enjoyed spending time with her, but at the same time, I didn't want her involved with any of this. However, she was dead-set on being part of the operation we were gathering in Net Slum for and there was absolutely no changing her mind.

"Please tell me I'm not late!" BlackRose declared as she warped in. Helba and Lios, who were engaged in a heated conversation in the shadows of a building, shook their heads at her.

"We're still waiting on the most important person."

"The enemy won't run away while we're waiting, right?' she asked worriedly. "You said something about the capacity of the area increasing, so I'm just worried what would happen if it just ran off."

"If it does," Helba reassured her, "we'll activate the codes within Rin and Balmung, and it'll come running straight to us. Hopefully Kite arrives before that happens, _if_ it happens."

As if on cue, Kite's body appeared next to Wiseman and Balmung. Looking around in a daze of panic, he asked, "Am I late?"

"Hardly, but we must hurry if the plan is to go smoothly," Helba informed him. "Go ahead."

"Me?" he asked, meeting each of our gazes ineptly, as Balmung sauntered to my side.

"You're the one with the bracelet. We can't do this without you," I told him. It was true. Without Kite's bracelet, we had unquestionably no chance to ever defeat the Wave and get out of the game.

As we all turned to face him, he seemed to shrink back into the corner. Even the broken characters that surrounded us forced their attention onto him, even though they had no part in our plans. Taking a large breath, Kite closed his eyes and reopened them, standing up straight to address the group before him.

"This operation to restore The World to the game it was meant to be and to help the players who have fallen into comas while playing. I think the name Wiseman chose for the operation is fitting. By ourselves, we can't even hope to stand up to the Wave, but if we lend each other our trust and our own powers, we can drain the power out of the mightiest wave and defeat it. Everyone, please, lend me your strength!"

I couldn't help the feeling that had gathered in my body while Kite gave his speech. It was the first time I'd realized that I trusted him completely. I knew that I would someday see the face of my father again and tease my sister about her nerdy habits. All because of not only Kite, but the spirit of our group as a whole. We were all important, every single one of us.

"I want to see Orca again," Balmung spoke up. "I want to go back to my crappy part-time job and I want to argue with my siblings." His warm hand wrapped around mine. "And I want to kiss her. Kite, I will follow you until the end of The World."

"I want to see my sister again," Katashi perked up. "You have my support. 100%."

"May the Twilight Dragon's protection be with us! Commence Operation Breakwater!" Kite cried, raising his wrist high above his head.

"Roger!" we replied simultaneously.

Without saying any words, we returned to Carmina Gadelica, then instantly warped to Fort Ouph. Kite, BlackRose, and Katashi formed a party. I held tightly onto my sister's hand and Balmung rested a palm on Kite's shoulder, watching him insert the required keywords.

Sigma: Chatting, Snaring, Twins couldn't even be truly considered an area. I saw it more as a giant piece of contamination. The features were hardly recognizable. The only familiarity was a large castle in the distance, which we made a quick beeline for.

We fought relentlessly through the rooms of the dungeon. Trying to save all the recovery items we possessed, I made sure to heal as diligently as I could. I watched my sister's fighting, making note of how much she'd gotten better since the last time she joined our party. When I complimented her, however, she only replied with shy stammers of thanks.

She even assisted me with her own spells as we arrived at the dreaded purple mist. I was extremely grateful for her and found myself thinking that I was glad she forced her way along with our group.

"Are we ready?" Balmung asked when we finished.

"I think so," Katashi replied, readying her weapon.

We advanced through the doorway, stepping into the familiar area that still brought trepidation into my heart, no matter how many times we risked our lives here. In the distance, a piece of a cathedral fell from the sky, disappearing into the oblivion below.

"Sigma: Chatting, Snaring, Twins is now quarantined," Helba's calm voice boomed from around us. "The bait code is activated for the time being and communications is offline. Good luck." Static drowned out her voice.

I knew my body would feel some sort of odd way when the code was activated, but I wasn't expecting my vision to fade out and my knees to buckle. I fell, smacking my head hard against the ground. Luckily, my sight came back within moments.

"Rin, are you okay?" Balmung asked, scooping his arms underneath my body to help me up. I nodded, rubbing the back of my head.

"Yeah, just…caught me off-guard, I guess. You didn't feel anything?"

A sly smirk formed on his lips. "I did. I just didn't fall."

"What the hell is that?" my sister whispered, motioning toward two floating teardrop-shaped monsters. They hovered above the ground, moving in accordance with each other. They each sported complete faces, each smiling creepily. The only true difference between the two seemed to be the gems on their foreheads. One glowed a bright navy color while the other gave off a blinding yellow light.

"They must be Gorre," Kite replied. "Let's go!"

The four of them took off running toward the twins, focusing their attacks on the one with the yellow jewel. Barriers shot up before them, defending the monster. Realizing it had a physical tolerance, Balmung shifted himself around, delivering powerful blows to the other sibling. I casted elemental attacks on the one who would take them.

_Is it ever going to attack us?_

It seemed as if Gorre was just taking our assaults without switching to the offense for a very long time, but as soon as that question ran through my head, the monsters disappeared. All I could see was Balmung's horrified face as they reappeared near me, circling me dangerously. A deep roar of a laugh sounded from both of them as pain shot through my body, forcing me to my knees. I screamed out, hoping it would ease the stinging sensation pulsing through me, but it didn't.

"KEIKO!" I heard my sister scream as she ran toward me. Instead of getting past the two like she was hoping to do, she was only caught up in the attack. Once they stopped moving, a faint beeping noise echoed around us.

Struggling, I pointed my staff toward her character, mumbling, "Pha Repth."

My head seemed to be a cluster of static. Balmung and Kite seemed to be blurs as they ran toward me. BlackRose and Katashi continued their unremitting attacks as I was helped onto my own feet again. I was barely able to cast a healing spell on myself, but as soon as I did, the feeling of nausea and dizziness immediately went away.

I avoided Gorre for the remainder of the fight. It seemed drawn to me, though. The only reason I could come up with was because of the code inside me. At a point during the fight, the two came together, whispering to each other. Their eyes flicked to me, but before their synchronized attack could land, Balmung pushed me from harm's way, taking the blow himself.

"Now, now, NOW!" BlackRose screeched to Kite as soon as the data protection was broken. Kite lifted his wrist toward Gorre, crying out as a beautiful data stream shot from it. Halfway to the monsters, the stream split into two, piercing both of them simultaneously.

"Is it over?" my sister asked hopefully.

It broke my heart to shake my head and answer, "No."

We focused on the clutter of rock before us. It shook violently, as if it were frustrated. A pained cry came from it as it attacked Kite. Fortunately, it had seemingly low attack power, so healing my party was scarce.

Suddenly, my staff dropped to my side. My body was acting on it's own. As much as I struggled to regain control, I knew my efforts were futile when I advanced toward Balmung. Nobody was paying attention as I tackled him to the ground, delivering my fist right into his cheek. BlackRose screamed for me to stop, but I couldn't. I couldn't even talk.

_Move! Run! Do something!_

Balmung pushed me from his body and pinned me down. "Its okay," he whispered, his cheek swollen. "Its charm. It'll wear off soon." Tears fell from my eyes, sliding down both sides of my face. He gave a pained smile and pressed his lips to my forehead. "Its okay."

Before I knew it, the feeling returned to my hands and feet. "I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm so sorry."

"You're acting as if this is my real face," Balmung replied. He jutted his chin toward Gorre. "We should kill this thing, huh?"

We hammered away at it with spells and physical techniques until finally, the rocks cracked into smaller boulders. "No!" a sonorous voice sounded from the piling rocks. "I can't! No! Why me?! I can't! How?!"

"You did it," Helba's voice echoed disbelievingly as her body floated down from an open data stream. Behind her, Lios folded his arms over his chest.

"We will still need to investigate, but I suppose you all have succeeded," he grumbled.

Just as my sister gave a sigh of relief, Helba gasped and tilted her head upward, staring into the dark sky. "Omega server!" she shouted. Over her voice, I could hear the clacking of a keyboard. "Detecting immense data fluctuation! It could be the Cursed Wave itself, but its moving!"

"Its running _from_ us," Wiseman chimed in from an unknown location. I searched for his voice, but he seemed to be nowhere and everywhere at the same time. "Gorre eliminated the code within Rin and Balmung with the attacks."

I felt insanely guilty. Because of my inability to run from Gorre, the important part of me was deleted, making everything harder for everyone else, including Helba and Lios.

"This marks the beginning of a counterattack," Wiseman added gravely.

"Counterattack?" Kite repeated. "No, I don't believe that is the case. I think we are just starting to realize the true rule of the game that Harald created."

My mind instantly pictured Aura. This game was meant for her – for her growth as his child. It truly had nothing to do with the money CC Corp. was investing and obtaining from the players, nor did it involve character creation, friends, or adventures in all the different areas and dungeons.

Fear shuttered through my body. If that were the case, then no matter how many CC Corp. employees or hackers we had on our side, we would never entirely know what we would be up against.

As Balmung's arm snaked around my shoulder and pulled me in close, that fear shrunk. My sister smiled at me, giving a thumbs up. At that moment I knew, no matter how terrified I was, that turning around and hiding wasn't an option. If I had any hope of life, I had to stick it through until the end.


	30. Resemblance

"This is beautiful," I commented, gazing around at the newly opened Root Town for the Omega server: Relic City Lia Fail. Vibrant trees surrounded us, as did stone shrines. A stairway expanded before us, leading to an area we hadn't ventured to yet. Peeking out from over the top, a gigantic dull orange moon shone brightly.

"A common favorite among the players," Balmung remarked, touching one of the shrines delicately.

As soon as our Twin Blade hero warped in, haphazard shrieks of static drowned out our words. Beside him, BlackRose looked around frantically, almost as if she was searching for something. The ground seemed to rumble and if it hadn't been for Balmung catching me, I would've fallen back onto my butt.

"This place is too dangerous!" Helba shouted over the deafening noise. "We're bouncing!"

I meant to ask what she meant by that, but before I had the chance to, we were transported to Net Slum, meeting Wiseman in the process. Only, this place wasn't exactly Net Slum. The layout was different and it lacked the usual player-less characters. Instead, normal players wandered the streets, chatting amongst themselves as if this place was part of the game.

"Welcome to Paradise!" Helba greeted, turning to face us. Lios, who always seemed to be late to the gatherings, warped in next to her.

"This isn't Net Slum," I told.

"This is my own mirror of Lia Fail," she informed us.

"What?!" Lios barked. His tone caused me to unwillingly flinch away from him. "How did you…? When did you…? I can't trust you at all!"

Turning her nose up in the air, Helba replied with the utmost snootiness to her voice, "If it hadn't been for me and my mirror server, who knows what would've happened? It was me who saved us all."

"She has a point," Balmung muttered, mostly to himself.

"Nobody asked you, brat!" Lios snapped before turning to Helba. "Okay, I'm sorry."

Sighing in annoyance, Wiseman shook his head. He had been completely silent the whole time that I had forgotten he was there. "Shall we begin on our reasoning for calling this meeting?" he asked in irritation. "Presently, the Wave is still moving and because the coding was erased from Rin and Balmung's character data, we are having a difficult time tracking it."

When the sea of gazes fell upon Balmung and me, I wanted to shrink away and hide. Even though I knew it wasn't any fault of ours, I couldn't help but feel incredibly guilty. If only I had been strong enough to avoid Gorre.

Balmung's hand clutched tightly around mine and when I tilted my head back to look at his face, I saw the stern expression he wore. I had to be strong – as strong as Balmung – if I had any hope of returning to the real world.

"Doing what we can to limit its destination points is the objective of our operation," Wiseman continued, taking the attention from us. I stifled my sigh of relief. "Isn't that correct, Kite?"

The Twin Blade nodded. "That's right. Orca once told me that when killer whales find a prey, they will split off and form an enclosure to block it. But when their prey becomes scared, it panics and slips through the holes in their barricade. So, the whales intentionally leave a gap open to herd their prey to a more convenient location."

"That's…a little sick and twisted," I commented. In my imagination, I pictured our group surrounding a piece of wandering data, then chasing it into a corner where we would begin to slash and hack at it without hesitation. The thought sent shivers up my spine.

_It has to be done. This Wave isn't a true living creature._

"Based on the analysis of the Virus Cores provided by Lios," Wiseman continued, "Helba was able to create a vaccine program – one that we believe cannot be deleted by the Wave. Although we call it a vaccine, it is impossible for it to effectively exterminate our enemy. But if we're going to herd it somewhere…Just leave that part to me. My question is, is do we have enough people?" His eyes flicked around nervously as he counted how many of us were present.

"My sister will probably be angry if she doesn't get to help," I answered. As much as it pained me to say it, it was the truth. "So you can count her in."

"And I have many subordinates that will aid us as well," Lios offered.

Helba gave a sarcastic chuckle. "Wonderful! More pigheads!"

"Shut up!"

"Pigheads aside—" Balmung started, but an accusing finger pointed in his direction from Lios stopped him short.

"What was that, you brat?!"

"Your pardon," the winged man replied, an obvious hint of rudeness in his voice. "Pigheads aside, what do we need to do to prepare for this operation?"

Silence fell over our gathering, with the exception of the faint noise of keyboard clacking. It was coming from Helba's side, so when she cleared her throat and spoke up, we were all paying attention to her. "There is an area with data fluctuation that we need measured, but I would also like it if Rin and Balmung stayed behind. If there is any extra coding that we previously placed within you still lingering around, it would be of our best interest to operate again to take it—"

"You're joking, right?" I interrupted, placing my hands securely on my hips. "You're insane if you think we're going to just let you do that again." I heard Helba inhale to protest, so I hurried with my words. "I don't care if there is still broken coding in me. It hasn't done any harm so far."

She stared me down for a long while, probably expecting to me to change my mind. Awkward silence settled over us and from beside me, I could hear Balmung shuffle his feet uncomfortably. When it was obvious that I was standing my ground on the matter, she let out an irritated sigh.

"Omega: Bigoted, Snowflake's, Capsule is the area we need to investigate," she informed dejectedly. "I suggest planning your party to your advantage and leaving immediately."

The grin of pride on my face could not have been any more obvious.

:-:-:-:

Snow crunched loudly underneath our feet as we avoided Magic Portals scattered throughout the field. If I hadn't been so focused on the noise, I'm sure the pounding drum of my heartbeat would've drowned out the sound.

The area's level was much higher than Kite and BlackRose. Even though such a thing didn't particularly apply to Balmung and I, my nerves still went haywire. This meant I would have to double-up on my healing spells and constantly listen for the faint beeping telling me that my friends were dying.

This also meant that if this area contained another part of the Wave, we had absolutely no hope of defeating it. Sure, Balmung and I could attempt to fight, but if I had to place all my attention into our normal partners, I couldn't focus on him. If that happened and he was killed in battle, then…

I couldn't bear to think about it. There was no way it could happen. He was Balmung of the Azure Sky; The Descendant of Fianna. However, as much as I wanted to put all my faith into him, I knew that there was a huge difference between sitting behind a computer screen with a controller in your hands, and actually putting your life on the line to kill monsters.

My mind had been so fogged by my gnawing thoughts that when we reached the ominous purple mist, I wondered where the entire dungeon had gone to. We had easily fought our way through without so much as a few healing spells being casted. Maybe I didn't give Kite and BlackRose enough credit?

"Rin," Kite muttered.

"Right," I answered, raising my staff high above my head to quickly cast every strengthening spell I knew. It was times like this when I missed Mistral the most. I longed for her quirky attitude even in the toughest of moments, but it would have been a huge weight off my shoulders to have another Wavemaster in our party.

I nearly jumped from my skin when Balmung placed his hand on the base of my neck. "Don't fret," he said, an optimistic tone in his voice. "I highly doubt we'll face anything we cannot handle."

Unable to find any words, I only nodded.

"See?" he continued once we had stepped through the mist. "Just a simple Data Bug. We've faced many of these before."

But when the gigantic, neon green hexagon-clad sand hill monster sent Balmung smashing into the wall behind us, it was apparent that this much more of a trickier battle than any other Data Bug we'd gone up against.

"Are you okay?!" I shouted to my winged lover, casting a simple healing spell on him. Balmung stood with shaking legs, his right hand clutching tightly onto his blade while his left cradled the blood that dripped from his nose, and hissed a string of profanities he was sure only he could hear.

Without acknowledging me, the rage-filled man charged toward the monster, slashing away as roughly as he could. I kept an extra close eye on him as I attacked with my spells. For a split second, I was sure I was staring at the young, infuriated boy I had witnessed fighting his brother when my coding was being installed.

"Balmung," I croaked out, noticing that my teammates had caught onto his blinding attacks. Although they didn't halt theirs, they definitely slowed to watch him.

When the sound of glass shattering echoed around us and Kite weakened the monster to a killable creature, Balmung's relentless attacks didn't subside. Within a few quick moments, Sand Hill – the true name of the monster – melted into a grey puddle of itself, eventually disappearing.

"Good job. We were able to measure the data," Helba's voice told from an invisible source.

She was ignored, though. Our gazes fell on Balmung, who seemed to be struggling to control his breathing. He stood a good distance from us, his slumped wings seemingly hiding his figure. I stepped toward him until I was able to rest my palm on his shoulder. He was quivering.

"Balmung," I mumbled, giving him a soft squeeze. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he replied. His voice cracked with the lie. "Sometimes I just remind myself too much of my father."

:-:-:-:

The chilly, hard floor of the cathedral had once been horribly uncomfortable to lie on. It made sleeping difficult and unfortunately, the rows of pews were not any better. Over time, however, it began to feel more and more like an actual bed. Sleeping anywhere else felt wrong and unwelcoming. There was a certain sensation of safety to sleep in a place where Aura's statue watched over us.

Sleep had overtaken Balmung much sooner than it did me. Uneven strands of hair covered his twitching eyelids and as I lay next to him, using my fingers to tuck them into the rest of his hair, I wondered if his hair was growing. It seemed longer than before, but that was impossible. Characters didn't age.

From his outbursts of rapid breathing, I could tell he was dreaming. But about what, I could probably never tell you. I could only make educated guesses that they contained his father and his siblings.

His clammy hand found mine and gripped tightly, but not enough to harm me. I brought his hand to my lips, kissing his skin as I squeezed back.

"You will never be like your father."


	31. The Temptress

"Hellooooo? Anyone in there?" my sister called in a singsong voice. Her hand rose and fell in front of my face, catching my attention. I shook my head, slapping her hand from me.

"I'm fine," I lied. "You've recovered your SP, right? We can go now."

BlackRose folded her arms tightly in front of me. She and Katashi seemed to be forming a barricade of some sort to prevent me from wandering further into the dungeon. The journey was purely for them, to raise their levels before we encountered anything else. I had no personal gain from it, so why did it matter if I zoned out a bit during? I was casting healing spells just fine.

"Spill it," BlackRose demanded.

"Yeah," my sister added. "You've barely said a word this whole time. What's on your mind? Did you and Balmung break up or something?"

I rolled my eyes, pushing my way through them. "No, we didn't break up. I'm fine, really. Let's just get this over with so we can get back."

Honestly, I wasn't fine. My mind was definitely off in a faraway place, galaxies from the dungeon we lurked about, searching for random Magic Portals. Emma Wielant. She held my thoughts.

Two days before, we had stumbled upon her waiting place. She stood high on a looming hill, holding a regal parasol underneath a ginko tree. She looked past us, a charming yet uncomfortable smile permanently glued onto her shadowed face. Without realizing what I was doing, I had begun to advance toward her – much to Balmung's dismay - until finally, I stood only inches from her body.

Only then did her eyes connect with mine and from her still mouth, her voice echoed, "Over the Keel Mountains meets an ape with human speech. The ape asks, 'What clings to you? Bear it – you cannot. Accept it – you cannot. But hidden – it is from you. Recite its name.'"

At first, my answer to her was death. That seemed to be the answer to everything. But before I could give my response, we had been kicked from the area and sent back to Fort Ouph. Since then, the way I felt when her eyes met mine burned a certain shiver into my heart.

"Wait, isn't that…?"

My sister's words trailed off, as if she was trying to remember. There was no need to, though. BlackRose finished for her.

"Mia!"

My head whipped around hard enough to give me whiplash. The character that was wobbling into the next room was certainly Mia; the tail gave it away. We wasted no time following her, but when we caught up, the cat's head lolled to the side lazily.

"Elk has been looking for you, you know," BlackRose informed her. Elk's name brought a certain sort of sadness to my gut. The last time I had been with him, he expressed his longing for his friend, who took an extended leave of absence.

Beside me, Katashi let out a quick sigh. Over the past month or so, she had become undeniably close to Elk. Not to the point of taking Mia's place, but damn near. There were so many things she had found out about the young boy, but refused to share with me. Even at the young age of ten, my sister was extremely loyal.

"Elk?" Mia repeated. Her large yellow eyes meet each of ours until she returned her gaze to BlackRose. "I-I don't…"

"You…do remember him, right?" I questioned. "He thought you quit the game or something."

"I can't see Elk," she snapped, turning from us. "I can't see him…anymore."

Before we had the chance to call out to her, she warped from the dungeon, leaving the three of us in a jumble of unanswered questions. Just what in the hell was going on? Why couldn't Mia see Elk anymore? They had always been together, from what he told me. So why were things so different now?

:-:-:-:

My nerves didn't settle the next day when we were summoned to Net Slum. Balmung, Elk, Wiseman, Helba, Kite, BlackRose, Katashi and I stood in a gigantic circle, each of us staring anxiously at one another. Most of us knew what was coming. Having Elk tag along made the situation worse. But he was so persistent on coming with us in hopes of somehow helping Mia that Kite couldn't say no. I just hoped we would actually help her instead of the opposite.

After seemingly hours of silence, Wiseman spoke up. "It seems Lios will not be joining us. He is positioned with his employees throughout the game. They're stationed in areas where the Wave frequently appears. We'll herd it to Omega: Cruel, Vindictive, Scars and eliminate it."

"This isn't right," Balmung muttered. Although he stood a good two feet from me, his voice seemed to be right in my ear. When I tilted my head to look toward him, I saw that he was staring at Elk.

The small Wavemaster seemed terrified. From over Wiseman's voice, I could hear his staggered breaths. It took almost everything I had to restrain myself from moving closer to him, pulling him into a tight embrace, and telling him that it was okay to be scared. That probably would've made everything worse, though.

Kite formed his party, which consisted of BlackRose, Elk, Balmung and myself. My sister stayed behind to assist Wiseman and Helba with whatever they may need. As we prepared for our quest by buying healing items, scrolls, and withdrawing any items that could help us if needed, I felt like I was in a daze.

Could Mia's strange behavior somehow be related to what was going on in The World? Or was it something more personal involving her life outside the game? Either way, the way it affected Elk tugged at my heart. It seemed that his affection for the cat character was almost similar to mine for Balmung.

"Rin." Suddenly, Balmung's hand was wrapped around mine. We watched Kite insert the keywords and Virus Cores. With every press of his finger, my heart began to race faster and faster.

We fought through the dungeon with ease. Since my last journey with Elk, he'd improved his skills, making healing and casting attacking spells much easier. Or maybe it was me who was getting stronger? Maybe it was our entire group as a whole?

"Odd," Balmung commented as we reached the bottom of the dungeon. There was absolutely nothing there.

"Something isn't right," Lios' voice boomed. "The Wave isn't moving as a predicted."

"What?!" I yelled into the air. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

"The target is gone!" Lios bared back. "It vanished!"

I could almost feel the disappointment radiating from Elk. I couldn't blame him. I had even gotten my hopes up of finding something here.

"Confirming abnormal increase in the data capacity of Sigma: Graceful, Tempting, Fallen Angel!" Helba's frantic voice informed. "If you go now, you'll get there just in time! Go!"

My mind couldn't keep up with how quickly our bodies seemed to be moving. Within moments, we were in a completely new area. I couldn't register the ground beneath my feet, the air stinging my eyes, or Balmung's warm hand pulling me along behind him. I was sure that if it weren't for him, my legs would've given out long ago.

"Elk, are you okay?" BlackRose asked, pointing out the elephant in the room. Something was wrong with him, but nobody wanted to say anything. He seemed to be staring off into space more often than usual, especially in battle.

"Mia is here," he started simply. "We need to find her."

My feet felt like bricks as we trudged along. Elk's words repeated in my head over and over again. If he was right and we had to fight her, could we do it? Could we bring ourselves to attack someone who had helped us in our early days of investigation?

Just as we did with all our moments before we stepped through the purple mist, we paused so I could cast strengthening spells on our party. Before I could, though, Elk pushed his way through and advanced by himself. We wasted no time following him.

We found ourselves in a long hallway, staring at a hunched figure in the shadows. Elk held out a hand, slowly making his way toward it.

"Mia…?" he called out, his voice cracking halfway through her name.

"Elk…" Mia's voice was distorted – it hardly sounded like her usual, velvety tone. "My Elk…"

"Oh my god," I whispered, squinting my eyes to focus on her. Every so often, her head would twitch to the side and her ears would flatten and perk up again. A low, guttural growl escaped her throat.

"Elk, who am I?" she questioned, pushing her head deeper into her knees.

Elk let out a desperate chuckle. It seemed as if he had forgotten we were standing right behind him. "Well, you're Mia, of course."

"I have no memory," she confessed. "I only exist in The World. The only memory I have…is when I am in The World."

Balmung gripped my arm tightly, stepping in front of me. Mia's body shakes became more violent as she cried hysterical sobs. She covered her long ears with her hands and shook her head.

"No, no, no!" she screamed. "Stop it! I want to stay as me!"

The more tense and disturbed I felt, the more my body seemed to feel frozen. As quickly as her tantrum came on, Mia calmed. Her head tilted back, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Streams of salmon-colored data emerged from underneath her, swallowing her into a cocoon.

Before it completely engulfed her, her voice whispered, "Elk, I'm so sorry."

A tortured scream rang out around us as the ground rumbled. My vision fuzzed. Before we were transported, I knew what was happening. Mia was Macha, the next Phase.

The cocoon opened up, revealing a transformed Mia. It still somewhat resembled her; the slender ears stood high from her head, whiskers extended from her cheeks, and her breasts still stood out in their normal perky manner. Her eyes glowed a beautiful rose color and the base of the cocoon surrounded her like a mass of flower petals, giving the idea that she wore a flowing dress. Something about her gave off an erotic aura, even more than usual.

Mia, or rather Macha, turned to Elk, who held out his hands for her. "Mia, please! Don't do this!" he begged.

A strange noise came from Macha. It sounded almost like a wail of despair. A crimson light surrounded Elk, squeezing his form until he disappeared. Panic surged through me.

"Elk!" I screamed, running to the spot where he once stood. There was no sign of his character.

"He's okay," my sister's voice echoed. She must've been using the same communicator that Helba and Lios used to stay in touch with us. "Currently outside the dungeon, but Macha has sealed the entrance."

She was protecting him, even as the monster she turned into. Through the code that had been written in her from the very beginning, the code that controlled her very existence, she was able to have enough control to get him out of harm's way.

_Mia truly loves Elk…_

"Okay, let's do this!" I shouted. "I doubt Mia wants us to be defeated by whatever this thing is that she's turned into, so let's get this over with!"

"I agree!" Balmung chimed in. As he ran past me, I hurried to cast any strengthening spells I could remember at the moment on him.

Although the other two also agreed with me, we were all reluctant to hurt her. With every swing of our weapons, Macha groaned in pain. It sounded all too much Mia's voice. Every so often, I could hear a faint, "…stop…" It affected each of us for only a second before we realized she was truly saying, "…stop…me…"

Our fight with her became a game of tag. She ran from us, we chased her, she stopped to throw a fist, we took it and healed, then continued to chase. It seemed too easy, almost as if she was holding back. But then again, so were we. At this rate, we would get nowhere, especially with her random technique of healing herself.

Tears blurred my vision as I ran from her, narrowly avoiding her swats. Even though I wasn't as close to her as Elk or Kite, without her we would've have gotten this far. She was the reason why Kite could hack into Protected Areas. This had to be done, though. It was either her life or ours.

Macha stopped, her lean fingers touching her puckered lips. The sound of lips smacking came from her and anger rose inside of me. I wasn't sure why I was so livid. I just was. And when I settled my eyes on Balmung, my feelings only exploded.

He seemed to have been feeling the same way because we advanced toward each other, weapons ready to attack. I could hear BlackRose's frantic screams for us to stop somewhere far away, but my heavy heartbeat drowned her out.

I lifted my staff to strike Balmung, but his fist collided with my stomach. Lurching forward, I gasped for air to take into my lungs that felt as if they weren't even there. Kite or BlackRose must've used a healing item, because Balmung caught me in his arms and pulled me in close.

"I'm so sorry, Rin," he whispered in my ear. I still couldn't breathe. He was squeezing me, causing me to writhe in pain.

_He's going to break my spine!_

"Do something!" Balmung yelled to our teammates. They were caught in their own battle with each other. Nobody could heal.

Without thinking, I buried my face into Balmung's neck, biting hard on his skin. He gritted his teeth together, suppressing a painful moan. Luckily, his grip on me weakened, but it didn't stop me from delivering my fist into the side of his head.

I raised my fist to bring it down on him again, but my frantic anger disappeared in a flash. I slumped next to Balmung, who held his hand up as if waiting to catch my wrist. Through ragged breaths, we stared at each other, waiting for one of us to attack. It didn't happen again. Maybe Macha thought if she couldn't bring herself to kill us, she could get us to kill each other?

"Let's go!" Kite called. We jumped to our feet. I stayed toward the back, healing as needed. Macha's movements were faster now; she dodged attacks and appeared in random spots throughout the area.

Finally, Kite's bracelet lit up and the sound of shattering glass surrounded us. He lifted his arm, pointing it toward Macha.

"What?! Wait, Kite! Stop!" BlackRose called, holding out her hand toward him. But she was too late. Macha had transported herself behind me, luring Kite's attack with her. He cried out as the data stream pierced my body as well as Macha's.

This was something completely different from when I'd first been Data Drained by Skeith. Back then, I was still in my real body.

Unbearable pain surged throughout me. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't find my lips. It was as if I'd been separated from myself again. My vision faded in and out. Through my hardly conscious sights, I watched as Kite and BlackRose continued to attack the rock formation that Macha had turned into. Eventually she had turned back into Mia and Elk found his way back into the dungeon.

Balmung circled me in his arms, his voice dwindling as his image was. I tried my hardest to make out his voice. "Rin, you're okay…come back…please…wake up…please wake up…don't do this to me, don't do this to me, don't do this to me…please…I love you so much…I love you so fucking much…don't do this…please."

Even though he begged, I still slipped away.


	32. Assistance

I could hear their voices chattering around me, talking about me as if I weren't right in front of them. My head throbbed with a painful headache. As my eyes cracked open, I lifted my arm to shield them from the blinding light.

I was alone, but Helba's voice echoed around me. Her melodic tone bounced off the walls and the ceiling of the long corridor I had woken up in. From somewhere faraway, Lios joined in with her conversation.

"Rin?" Helba called. "Can you hear me?"

I sat up, supporting my head with my hand. "Uh, yeah," I answered. "But where are you?"

"Just in time," Lios whispered, sounding as if he was talking to himself.

"We were able to save your character from Kite's Data Drain just in time by rewriting your internal codi—"

"I thought Balmung made it clear to stay out of our codes!" I snapped as I struggled to stand on my feet. I leaned against the wall, taking note that the corridor was the same type of the castle dungeons.

"It was either that," Helba informed me, "or you would've perished in the attack."

Rolling my eyes, I knew I should've thanked them. Instead, however, I demanded to know, "Where is everyone else? And where am I?"

I began to wander down the hallway, searching for any signs of an exit. There were no doors, no windows, and no Magic Portals. The usual dreary background music was silenced. My footfalls and the two voices were the only sounds I heard.

"We're fixing your coding as we speak," Helba told me. "Think of this as a little resort while we get you put back together."

"What am I, a robot?" I hissed to myself bitterly.

A gnawing thought grew in the back of my head. What had happened to my teammates once Mia was defeated? And just as importantly, what happened to her? If my coding had to be hurried and rewritten after Kite's Data Drain or I would've died, then was that Mia's ultimate fate?

_Mia…She couldn't have died…_

A strange sort of guilt swirled in my gut. If that were the case, it meant that Kite was a killer and by association, so was I. Then again, we'd killed monsters before. Wasn't that truly what Mia was? If she didn't exist outside of The World, then she was just another creature made of codes.

Part of me wanted to believe that so badly, but deep down, I knew it wasn't the truth. Mia had emotions and thoughts of her own. She knew that she was changing into that horrible creature and she tried to change her fate. A programmed monster couldn't comprehend something like that.

Mia was real, even if she didn't exist in the real world.

"Are you almost finished?" I called out, looking toward the ceiling as if Lios and Helba would magically appear.

"We can't send you back now," Lios told me. Rage instantly filled me.

"Why?!"

"Your party is in the middle of a battle…with Cubia," Helba said. Her voice turned monotone as if she was focusing intently.

The rage immediately turned to panic. "You have to send me back!" I cried out hysterically. "Please! What if something happens to them?! What if something happens to _Balmung_?! Please send me back! I need to help!" I paced the floors, my legs feeling as if they would give out at any second and the urge to throw up rising in my stomach.

"We can't," Helba retorted. "Not right now. They're perfectly fine. Balmung is taking your place as a Wavemaster."

I found myself crouched against the wall, my arms wrapped around myself tightly. I soon began to realize that waiting around while the people who meant the most to you fought against something that could kill them was even more painful than actually being by their side, risking your life as well. It was all I could do and I wondered if being in the position was slowly driving me insane.

Seconds ticked by, creating minutes and eventually creeping into hours. I spent my time wandering from wall to wall, trying to keep my mind occupied by counting how many dots of elegant design littered the floor and by imagining what life would be like once I was freed from this stupid game.

"Helba?" I finally called out. My headache had only worsened and I was almost certain that my worrying had completely eaten away at my stomach lining.

"Yes?" she replied.

"How is everything on the other side?"

When I only received silence, I forced my eyes shut. I repeated to myself in my mind that it was a bad dream and I would wake up in the cathedral and I'd go treasure hunting with Mistral or train with Balmung soon. How ironic that I longed for my normal abnormal life in a video game.

"Rin, everything is fine," she finally answered. My heart fluttered almost painfully as my eyes flicked open. "Cubia has retreated once again. I'll send you to Lia Fail now."

As soon as she finished her words, my world went black for only a short moment. Suddenly, I stood in a crowd of people in the rundown Root Town. I recognized some of them: Wiseman, my sister, Natsume, Piros, and…Mistral!

I called her name, rushing to her side as quickly as I could. It was delayed, but when I wrapped my arms around her in a tight embrace, her hands snuck around my waist in return. I buried my face into her clothing, sighing in relief.

"What are you doing here?" I asked breathlessly when I pulled away. She broke out into her usual goofy smile and giggled.

"I'm here to help!" she declared.

I let out a small, confused laugh. "Wh-What?" I stuttered, glancing her up and down as if I were looking at the real thing. "But what about the baby?"

She patted her stomach. "The baby is just fine! Besides, I was told that my help was desperately needed. And I can't just leave you to fend for yourself!"

I wondered who contacted her, but my thoughts were cut short when Wiseman placed a heavy hand on my shoulder and Katashi approached me on my other side. She nodded slowly while the male Wavemaster said, "I'm glad you're okay. You had everyone worried there for a minute."

"Thank you," I told him. "But where is everyone else?"

"They're on their wa—"

"Rin?"

I turned and instantly launched myself toward him. Balmung stood only a few feet away between Kite and BlackRose. I slammed into him, allowing my tears to fall and the embarrassing cries of gratitude to sound from my mouth. His arms wrapped around me as his wings circled us.

"I'm so glad you're okay…"


	33. The Avenger

There were so many people, so many willing to support Kite even though their lives were at risk. From the protection of Balmung's arm, I watched Kite interact with each and every player that cluttered the streets of Lia Fail. He smiled, laughed, and greeted them as if they had been lifelong friends of his. Maybe they were, but I was willing to put money on the thought that they weren't.

Kite had so many followers, including myself, that it made me wonder what kind of person he would grow up to be. If he became a powerful leader of a country, I wouldn't be surprised. He was so kind with everyone and took his time explaining to them any questions that were brought to his attention. It made me confirm my somewhat wavering doubts that he could save me – that he could save everyone who had fallen victim to the game.

"The improved condition of the vaccine has been completed!" Helba announced over the buzz of chatter that fell over our gathering. "We can continue the operation immediately!"

After being told to take our positions, Mistral scrambled her way to Kite's side. "I'm coming with you!" she declared, waving her staff high in the air. I watched as all the other players either gated to different areas or remained with Wiseman to talk over the plan with him once more.

"I don't know," Kite mumbled uncomfortably. "I just don't want anything to happen with the ba—"

Mistral cut him short with the shake of her head. "Look, I appreciate your concern, Kite. I really do." The seriousness of her tone surprised me. "But I'm coming with you and that's that. I've been out of the loop for far too long. I need to make up for the little vacation I took." Her eager eyes met mine. "And nothing will happen to Rin again. Not on my watch."

Balmung's arm tightened around my shoulders. We hadn't had the chance to talk at all since our reunion and I could tell that he was anxious for it. To tell the truth, I was too. Everything seemed to be moving so quickly that I longed for a moment to just sit down and breathe. But I knew just as well as everyone else that if I wanted to return to the real world, we couldn't afford to take any breaks.

"I'm going to stay back and help Wiseman," my sister informed me. She patted my back and offered a hopeful smile. "Good luck out there, but you won't need it."

Before I knew it, the five of us found ourselves at the Chaos Gate. Balmung placed his hand on Kite's shoulder and I grabbed for Mistral's arm. I watched the golden rings swirl and for the first time since my first horrible experience in the game, they seemed almost menacing, like they were going to swallow us whole without the intention to spit us back out.

"Rin, last chance," Kite mumbled, turning his head to glance sideways at me. "You can stay if you want."

I shook my head. "No way. You really think I'm going to let one little Data Drain scare me out of this? You're crazy." As he turned back toward the keyword input screen, I swore I could see the smallest smirk on his face.

Omega: Cruel, Vindictive, Scars remained just the way we left it: filled with Magic Portals that held no comparison against our group. With ease, we hacked, slashed, and unleashed powerful magic spells against the monsters that emerged from the Portals. Mistral let out a crazed cackle at every creature that fell to the ground in a defeated thump.

"I missed this sooooo much!" she exclaimed, twirling her staff about. "Do you guys realize just how terrible it is sitting around waiting to pop a baby out?! So boring!"

The sound of her blabbering and laughter gave a sense of relief to everyone. Even BlackRose, who had been lost in her own thoughts of doom the entire time, teased joked around with the other Wavemaster.

"Aw, come on," Mistral complained. "You all know that because you decided to be friends with me, you're honorary babysitters. Free of charge, right?"

From my side, Balmung let out a sardonic laugh. "That just means that when we all have children of our own, you'll do the same, correct?"

"Of course! I love babies and little kids and just people in general!"

It almost made me feel as though this was how the game was supposed to be played: with people you genuinely care for and enjoy spending time with, just searching through random dungeons to level up and find treasures. I wanted to forget the fact that there was an actual purpose for our journey here, but I couldn't.

When we arrived to the second floor of the dungeon – which wasn't the bottom floor, which I may add – the sound of heavy static flooded our ears. We stopped, readied our weapons, and glanced around nervously.

"Are you prepared?" Wiseman's voice sounded from an unknown source.

"Are we ever?" I shot back, joining Mistral as we casted strengthening spells on our party.

We were transported to the Phase fighting area, littered with the same floating pieces of drifting buildings, rocks, and uprooted trees. In front of us hovered our target: Tarvos. It formed the shape of a disfigured snake, a wooden stake piercing though the head and the part I could only guess served as the lower abdomen.

My teammates wasted no time hurrying to it, their weapons raised high. However, once Balmung's sword collided with a barrier, Mistral turned and smiled widely at me. "Now's our time to shine, Rin!" she called, pointing to her staff with her finger.

I nodded and watched as Kite and BlackRose fell back. Balmung called out the spells he did know, which wasn't many. Blademasters were mainly physical fighters, but often had a few magical attacks up their sleeves. Mistral and I, on the other hand, shouted spell after spell, delivering skulls of darkness, ice shards, and fireballs crashing down on the creature.

Tarvos had a voice: a deep, masculine tone that only grunted when it took a large amount of damage or when it threw a slowing or elemental weakening spell back at us. Often times, I had to stop my attacking to cancel out a poisoned or accuracy ailment. Mostly, it ran from us to try and avoid our attacks, but when it stopped and turned, growling in a menacing manner, I found myself wishing that running was all it would do.

Orbs of every color of light surrounded the ground below Tarvos. It groaned as they lifted into the air, swirling in a magnificent show of blinding rays. I squinted and covered my eyes with my free arm. When they separated and crashed back onto the ground, hitting us in the process, I tried my best to smack them away with my staff. But when they collided with the weapon, it felt as if my body had become rigid. Sharp pain rushed over me and I bit my lower lip to keep from crying out.

Soft beeping noises filled the air. While I recovered my own way from the attack, Mistral took over healing the rest of our party as they continued to pursue Tarvos, this time with physical beatings. I turned my attention to Balmung, who seemed to be suffering the same sort of pain I was in. Cautiously, I made my way to him, my body stiffening in random spots as I moved.

"Are you okay?" I managed to whisper, casting my own healing spell on him. His body glowed the soothing green before he gave a soft smirk.

"Compared to thinking that I lost you before during the fight with Mia? I'm perfectly fine."

Even though we were putting our lives on the line in this battle, I couldn't help but acknowledge the butterflies running rampant in my stomach and the growing grin on my face. I'd forgotten about the pain, but when Mistral called us over, everything came rushing back.

Tarvos stopped again, rusted brown trails of blood flowing from the eye sockets. They dropped onto the ground, creating a puddle that seemed much too large in contrast. The monster cried out in pain as boulders shot from the ground, impaling the three normal characters. Without any hesitation, Balmung and I casted as many healing spells as we could, quickly recovering our teammates.

The Phase refused to give us any time to pull ourselves together. Just as hastily as the pool of blood evaporated, it began to cry again. Loud wailing noises pierced our ears painfully as it plunged itself into the new pool of liquid beneath its body. It disappeared completely, sending us into a panic.

"Where did it go? Where did it go?!" I repeated, turning in every different direction. I held my staff in front of my chest although I knew it wouldn't provide much protection against the creature's attacks.

"Rin, move!" Kite's voice bellowed from behind me.

Before I had the chance to take advantage of his warning, something warm and moist covered my feet. I looked down, crying out at the blood that had seeped up from the ground underneath me. As I tried to lift my feet from it, it stuck to me like I had stepped in a giant piece of gum. The sounds of heavy footfalls thumping became closer and just as I lifted my gaze, Balmung's body collided with mine. His arms wrapped around my shoulders and my head, pressing me tightly into him as he tackled me from the blood.

We skidded to a painful halt a few feet from where I would've been impaled with wooden stakes. My ears rang with a high-pitched whine as I allowed Balmung to lift me to my feet. Deep scratches from stray pebbles raked across my arms and my face. The Blademaster quickly cupped my cheeks with his palm, whispering a low-healing spell. The pain subsided almost instantly.

"Thank you," I murmured as I turned my attention back toward our team just in time with watch Kite fire off a Data Drain. I winced in remembrance of the pain as the data stream pierced the Tarvos' thin body.

From the blinding light, the Phase's true form emerged. Just like all the others, Tarvos had turned into a cluster of rocks. I exhaled in relief, knowing that from this point on, the fight would be a piece of cake. Unlike the others, however, Tarvos disappeared and reappeared in quick flashes, often fleeing to the backside of Balmung and me.

"This is so annoying!" Mistral complained, raising her staff over my head to smack Tarvos from behind me. I put in as many blows as I could while it was close enough in my reach. Magic spells were completely out of the question. We all knew that whomever the creature was using as a shield would also be harmed in the attack. Instead, we resorted to physically hitting when we could and healing when needed.

Slowly but eventually, Tarvos' health depleted and the rocks cracked like shattered glass. The pieces fell to the ground in a hissing collection of tiny, ragged stones. Kite and BlackRose stared at them as they dissolved while Mistral, Balmung, and I watched around for any other horrible events that could occur.

"One more," BlackRose said as if she were talking to herself.

"There's still Cubia," Balmung replied, finally sheathing his blade. His eyes trailed my body up and down until I gave him a reassuring smile to let him know I was okay. "We still don't know how many more times it will flee from us."

We waited for either Lios, Helba, or Wiseman to come into communication with us, but only a heavy silence filled the air. Without anything more to do there, we returned to Lia Fail.


End file.
